Source: Education Times
Numbers from the Fall 2021 admission season suggest that the situation seems to be improving in the current academic year
The academic year 2020-21 saw a drop of 13.2% in the number of Indian students pursuing their higher education in the United States of America (USA). According to the recently released Open Doors Report 2021, this is the highest drop in percentage points in more than a decade.
From the 1.93 lakh Indian students studying in USA during 2019-20, the last academic year saw around 1.67 lakh heading to the USA for their higher education. Despite this, Indians continue to make up the second-largest cohort (18.3%) of international students in the USA, after China (34.7%), the report further says.
The academic year 2020-21 is the second consecutive year that witnessed a drop in the absolute number of Indians going to the USA for higher education. In 2019-20, the number had decreased from 2.02 lakh to 1.93 lakh.
The most popular specialisations opted by Indian students in USA in the last academic year included Math and Computer Science (34.8%), followed by Engineering (33.5%) as well as Business and Management (11.7%).
US embassy officials have described the trends in the 2020-21 dataset as a ‘Covid blip’. Donald Heflin, minister counsellor for Consular Affairs at the embassy, says that the pandemic and the ensuing lockdown posed major challenges, and raised safety concerns in the minds of parents whose children were to fly to the US for higher education. However, efforts were made on both sides (US and India) to ensure a safe and comfortable transition for students.
Heflin further said that the situation is looking up this year, as the number of Indian students and exchange visitors travelling to study in the USA is at an ‘all-time record’.
Despite the global pandemic, Indian students were able to apply for visas and travel to the USA. We issued over 62,000 student visas this summer alone, more than in any previous year, said Heflin. This goes to show that the USA remains the destination of choice for Indian students looking to study abroad, he added.
The Open Doors report is released by the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the Institute of International Education.
