More students from China than India in U.S. varsities

By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 17 November 2010, 08:14 IST
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Washington: After having dominated the table of students being sent to U.S. universities for years, India has come down to the second spot as China has overtaken India sending 127,628 for the 2009-2010 academic year. For the same academic year, India sent 104,897 students, reports S Rajagopalan of Express Buzz. The continuing grim unemployment situation in the U.S. is said to be the major reason behind the deceleration in Indian student flows. While there is only 2 percent increase in the India student flow, the Chinese student flow during the year has risen by a whopping 30 percent. The report said that the US economic downturn has affected the overall international student flows to American campuses. According to the figures released by U.S.'s Institute of International Education (IIE), the overall number of international students in U.S. universities is 690,923, an increase of 3 percent over the previous year. Of the new enrolments, Chinese students make up 18 percent and Indian students make up 15 percent. Together, the top three sending countries - China, India and South Korea comprise nearly half (44 percent) of the total international enrollments in U.S. higher education. IIE said that enrollment patterns varying widely according to place of origin and academic level. While there were strong increases in the number of students from a few countries, more than half of the top 25 sending countries showed decreases.