Indian students in US surge by 19% in 2021-22: Report
Darpan News Desk IANS, 15 Nov, 2022 01:45 PM
New Delhi, Nov 15 (IANS) The presence of Indian students in American universities has increased by 19 per cent compared to the last year, and nearly 21 per cent of over one million foreign students are Indian students, a US government report said.
In 2021-22, 1,99,182 students with India as their place of origin were pursuing higher education in the US, as against 1,67,582 in 2020-21, according to the Open Doors Report, an annual survey on international students released Monday. In 2012-13, there were 96,654 Indian students in higher education in the US.
The rise in Indian students moving to the US is likely to overtake China in 2022-23, with 82,000 visas issued between June and August - the highest number among all countries.
The year 2021-22 saw 62,000 student visas being issued, said Don Heflin, Minister Counsellor for Consular Affairs at the US embassy in New Delhi.
In contrast, China fell behind India as strict quarantine norms and travel restrictions due to Covid made it harder for Chinese students to acquire visas. Heflin said that around 110,000-120,000 visas are issued to Chinese students, which fell to around 50,000.
In 2021-22, China and India collectively accounted for 52 per cent of all international students in the US, the report, which is sponsored by the US Department of State and implemented by the non-profit Institute of International Education (IIE), said.
China showed a drop of nine per cent in the latest round, with the number of Chinese students pursuing higher education in the US going down from 3,17,299 in 2020-21 to 2,90,086 in 2021-22.
A decade ago, there were 2,35,597 Chinese higher education students in the US. The rise in Indian numbers came after the slump caused by pandemic years.
Between 2018-19 and 2019-20, as well as 2019-20 and 2020-21, the number of Indian students enrolled in US universities had fallen by 4.4 per cent and 13.2 per cent respectively.
The 19 per cent increase in Indian students studying in America was largely driven by graduate students, Heflin said. A majority of Indian students chose Math and Computer Science, Engineering and Business, and Management, according to a US embassy official.
Overall, the total number of international students pursuing higher education in the US went up from 9.14 lakh in 2020-21 to 9.48 lakh in 2021-22.
"It is clear that Indian students and their parents recognize the value of US education, one that prepares them to leverage their newly gained know-how to tackle the world's challenges and readies them for future opportunities, whether that's in Artificial Intelligence, emerging technologies or entrepreneurship and innovation," Gloria Berbena, minister counselor for Public Diplomacy, said.
The Biden administration has kept in place travel restrictions that have severely curtailed international trips to the U.S., citing the spread of the delta variant of the virus. Under the rules, non-U.S. residents who have been to China, the European Schengen area, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Brazil, South Africa and India in the prior 14 days are prohibited from entering the U.S.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control last week warned the Delta variant of the virus is so contagious, vaccinated people who do get infected could be just as big a risk to others as people who aren't vaccinated.
The new requirement, which will be phased in over several weeks in August and September, is the most aggressive step the city has taken yet to curb a surge in cases caused by the delta variant.
The findings have the potential to upend past thinking about how the disease is spread. Previously, vaccinated people who got infected were thought to have low levels of virus and to be unlikely to pass it to others. But the new data shows that is not the case with the delta variant.
President Joe Biden is calling on states and local governments to join those that are already handing out dollars for shots. New York, the nation's biggest city, started doling out $100 awards on Friday.
