Chennai: The United States continue to attract Indian students as the number of Indian students studying there has gone up to a record 1.65 lakh in 2015-16 — a growth of 25 per cent compared to the previous year.
According to Open Doors report 2016, there are 1,65, 918 students studying from India, accounting for one out of every six international students in the US.
The data was released by the Institute of International Education (IIE) in collaboration with the US department of state’s bureau of educational and cultural affairs.
The biggest increases were among graduate students (20 per cent) and the students undergoing Optional Practical Training (44 per cent). The number of graduate students increased by 16,795 and OPT students by 12,940 students.
A major chunk of students are pursuing engineering (36 per cent), maths and computer science (35 per cent) courses. Business and management (10.3 per cent), physical and life sciences (6.3 per cent), health-related courses (2.9 per cent) are also drawing more students.
Undergraduate students’ number has increased by 16.8 per cent this year.
“Now, more students are enquiring about the undergraduate programmes. They can also enrol into the college as undeclared and choose a major after attending some basic courses,” said Maya Sundararajan, regional officer, the United States — India Educational Foundation.
“Students are also looking out for multi-disciplinary options where they can switch from one field to another field,” she said. In contrast, the students coming to India from the US is down by 3.2 per cent. India is ranked 13th among the top 25 destinations of US study abroad.
The total number of international students in the US touched one million this year. China tops the list with 3.28 lakh students studying in the US.
