A report by the Institute of International Education has confirmed a record breaking increase in number of foreign students studying in the US for 2014-15, with a noteworthy growth from India.
The 'Open Doors' report states that there has been a growth of 10% in the number of international students in US from 2013-14 to 2014-15. This increase is by far the greatest in the last 35 years. The total number of international students enrolled in 2014-15 has reached a whopping 974,926.
The rate of US citizens studying abroad increased by 5%. This is by far the greatest growth rate since before the great recession of 2008. The total number of US students studying abroad reached a massive 304,467, an all-time high.
The report's findings are highly elaborate in nature, and give a detailed analysis of international and study abroad students in the US. It stated that though Chinese international students outnumbered their Indian counterparts, but the number of Indian students has grown at a rate of 30%, far beyond that of Chinese students. The total number of Indian students in the US stands at 304,040, primarily in Masters and Doctoral degrees.
Government support in countries like Brazil, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia has led the students from these countries to explore studying opportunities in the US. The number of such students is growing multifold, majorly due to scholarships received through their governments.
Historically, the number of international graduate students has been higher than the undergraduate counterparts, but the trend is now changing, as colleges happen to look beyond the US territorial borders to get full tuition. In 2014-15, foreign undergraduate students from China outnumbered their graduate school peers for the first time.