Despite apprehensions about Donald Trump’s anti-immigration policies, the craze to study in the US continues to gather momentum
Dr. Manasvi M. Kamat
Despite fears and apprehensions about the US President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration policies, the craze for study in the US still gathered momentum. The number of Indians studying in the United States of America has increased by 5.4 percent over 2017 according to the 2018 Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange.
Accordingly, it is the fifth consecutive year that the total number of Indian students pursuing their higher education in the US has gone up to a record level. This number has doubled over the last 10 years.
Out of 15 lakh (1.5) million international students studying in the United States of America, China and India together account for close to half of them all. South Korea takes the third place followed by Saudi Arabia and Japan respectively.
The other top 10 countries that make up the total strength of foreign students in the US are Canada, Vietnam, Brazil, Taiwan and Mexico.
As per the data released by the Indian government collected from different missions abroad, there are an estimated 5.53 lakh Indian students studying in 86 different countries and US, Canada and Australia account for two-third of this number.
The Open Doors Report 2018 points out that the Indian students comprise around 17 percent of all international students currently studying in the United States of America and the majority of Indian students (56%) join to earn their graduation in the US.
This report is published by the Institute of International Education (IIE), which has conducted an annual statistical survey on international students in the USA since its founding in 1919 and in partnership with the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs since 1972.
Similarly, the data published by Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regarding international students studying in the US during 2017 reveals that currently China tops the list with 4.81 lakh international students while India takes the second most contributed nation position with a total of 2,49,763 students.
India is also found to provide the second highest amount of graduate students and fourth-most undergraduates and the top host states in the United States of America are California, New York, Texas, Massachusetts, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio and Michigan.
A 2015 paper co-published in The Wall Street Journal and authored by professors from Cambridge, Warwick and the London Business Schools looked at 116 Indian companies and found that those that had leaders who studied or worked abroad had a competitive advantage.
This result thus ends the perception of many policy makers that for India students studying abroad leads to possible “brain drain”.
The international enrollments prove beneficial to the United States of America as international enrollments provide billions of dollars every year subsidizing the education of US students and are a key source of talent for US companies.
Unlike US citizens, who often get scholarships or discounts, students from abroad are typically charged full tuition and at the graduate level, international students do not crowd-out, but actually increase domestic enrollment in the US according to a study by economist, Kevin Shih.
Though the total enrollments in the US are increasing, the international enrollment in graduate science and engineering programs in the US dropped in 2017 after several years of increases.
These streams saw a 6 percent decrease in international graduate students from the fall of 2016 to the fall of 2017, and almost all of that decrease was concentrated in two fields; computer science and engineering. The biggest drop came from Indian students. Indians enrolled in Computer Science and Engineering at US Universities (Graduate Level) tumbled from 86,900 in 2016 to 68,310 in 2017, with a drop of 21 percent in just a year.
Saudi Arabia, Iran and South Korea also sent fewer students in 2017.
These figures were released in the Science and Engineering Indicators Report, 2018 from the National Science Foundation’s governing body, the National Science Board.
The falling international enrollments for graduations in the US are a matter of concern as over 50 percent of the total graduate students in US at the technical programs are from outside its country.
The number of US-born students in technical graduate programs started declining in 2008, and international students have been important in keeping program numbers up.
The Indian students seeking admissions for technical programs seems to be increasingly worried concerned with changing US immigration policies under President Donald Trump’s administration, that they may not be able to take up jobs there after graduation.
This has made the international enrollment trends in Australia and Canada to move in the opposite direction and as a result the international students for graduation in Australian colleges and universities were up 15 percent from March 2016 to March 2018 periods.
Whatever be the reasons, the USA doesn’t fail to attract the Indian diaspora. If not the graduation studies, the post graduation and research opportunities do ignite equal interests. The increasing trend in US presents a best choice to Indian students to study alongside a heterogeneous class and a top class environment.
Geopolitics apart, education truly liberates and the United States has always preached this to the world.
