Thaindian News

New Delhi, Nov 17 (IANS) Contrary to public belief that the US is the preferred destination for studies, a new survey released Monday found that the traffic is two-way and the flow of US students to India has increased by 24 percent last academic year. The Institute of International Education (IIE), a US based non-profit educational and cultural exchange organisation, in a new report said “American students” are increasingly seeking non-traditional destinations to study abroad.

“There is a strong growth in the numbers of US students going to China, India, South Africa, Argentina and Ecuador,” the report said.

“Although the numbers remain relatively small in comparison — 2,627 American students studied in India during the 2006-2007 academic year, it is a 24 percent increase,” it added.

Students electing to study in Asia increased by 20 percent, those going to Africa increased by 19 percent, and those going to Latin America and the Middle East each increased by 7 percent, as compared to the previous academic year.

At least 36 percent of students studying abroad do so through semester-long programmes, while 55 percent choose short-term programmes.

According to the report, the top three fields of study for Americans studying abroad are social sciences (21 percent) business and management (19 percent), and humanities (13 percent).

Meanwhile, the study revealed that Indians are the largest foreign student population in the US and their number has grown by nearly 13 percent.

The number of Indian students at the US educational institutions went to the highest so far in the 2007-2008 academic year - reaching a total of 94,563 students, or a 12.8 percent increase over the previous year.

Since 2001, Indians have been the largest foreign student population on the US campuses, comprising 15.2 percent of the total international students.

The report said in the US there were 623,805 foreign students in the academic year 2007-2008.

Adam Grotsky, Executive Director of the US-India Educational Foundation said: “The US remains the preferred destination for students from India who want to study abroad. Year after year, we see a growing interest in collaborations between the US and Indian educational institutions.”