Despite a five per cent drop, India continues to be the top place of origin for international students coming to the United States.
HOUSTON: Despite a five per cent overall drop, India continues to be the top place of origin for international students coming to the United States for higher studies for the fifth year in a row.
According to the latest 'Open Doors 2006 International Students in the United States' report released on Monday, India sent a total of 76,503 students to US to study in 2005-2006, a decrease of 5 per cent from the previous year (80,466), followed by China, Republic of Korea, Japan and Canada.
Students from the leading four places of origin-India, China, Korea and Japan, comprise 42 per cent of all international students enrolled in US higher education.
Out of this total, Indian students accounted for 13.5 per cent of all foreign students, followed closely by China (11.5 per cent) and Korea (10.4 per cent).
As for the total international student enrollment (564,766), the number of international students studying in the US has remained steady, within a fraction of a per cent of the previous year's totals (565,039).
A new analysis included in Open Doors for the first time shows colleges and universities reporting an 8 per cent increase in new enrollments for 2005-06.
Educating international students is a USD 13.5 billion industry for the nation's 4,000 colleges and universities, and in many science and engineering departments a majority of graduate students are foreign.
The report indicates that 52 per cent of US campuses reporting increases in new enrollments for fall 2006, and only 20 per cent reporting declines, while 28 per cent reported no change.
In order to maintain and ensure steady enrollment 58 per cent of all responding institutions have taken various steps like new international programs or collaborations, followed by new staff or additional staff time devoted to international recruitment, new funding for international recruitment trips, and new funding for marketing and promotion of programs.
Institutions that have devoted more resources for international student recruitment trips seem to have concentrated mainly on Asia, with China, Korea, Japan and India as most popular recruitment destinations.
According to Allan E Goodman, president and CEO of the Institute of International Education,
"America's colleges and universities have begun to see positive results from their proactive efforts to recruit international students and make them feel welcome on campus. With several thousand campuses able to host international students, the US has huge untapped capacity to meet the growing worldwide demand for higher education."
For the fifth consecutive year, the University of Southern California remains the US campus with the largest international student enrollment, with 6,881 international students. Columbia University moved up from fourth to second place with 5,575 international students.
The 2005-06 top five host institutions, all perennially popular destinations for international students are rounded out by Purdue University (moving up to third place from sixth), New York University, and the University of Texas at Austin.
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