Post racial attack: Undergraduates choose UK, Australia over US now

Bengaluru: An increasing number of undergraduate students are opting for colleges outside the United States, but those pursuing masters and PhD still prefer top-notch American universities, said student counsellors, who have seen a tracking the change in trend after racial attacks targeting Indians in the US.
Undergraduate students from the country now prefer colleges from the UK, Australia and New Zealand, said Ms Ashimitha Kumari, a country representative for several foreign universities. “There is no immediate impact on students who want to join elite institutes like Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology etc. For masters and PhD studies, students still prefer the US.

These racial attack incidents have not been reported from any of the campuses. Generally, US campuses are safe for students. God forbid, if there is any such incident, Canada and Germany will benefit,” she said. She pointed out that increasingly, undergraduate students are opting for colleges from the United Kingdom, Australia and New zealand. “Colleges from European countries and Australia are aggressively campaigning in India. The situation in the US has come as a blessing for them," she said.

Visa interview wait period still 10 days says a travel agent
Travel agents and visa service providers said that the waiting period for the US visa interview, both in Chennai and Hyderabad, is around 10 days. “Recently, I was part of HR teams of two IT majors from the city that wanted to send their senior technical associates for training in the US under business visas. But both in Hyderabad and Chennai the visa interview waiting period was 10 days,” said a travel agent.