According to the “Open Doors in 2021” report released on Monday, in the 2020-21 academic year, the number of Indian students enrolled in higher education in the United States fell by 13.2%, the largest drop in more than a decade. The total number of Indians studying in the United States dropped from 193,000 in 2019-20 to 167,000 in the previous academic year. U.S. Embassy officials attributed the decline to the devastation caused by the pandemic.

However, Indians continue to constitute the second largest group of international students in the United States (18.3%), second only to China (34.7%). Among the total number of students in India, the majority (34.8%) chose mathematics and computer science, followed by engineering (33.5%) and business and management (11.7%) for the 2020-21 academic year. The 2020-21 academic year is the second consecutive year that the absolute number of Indians going to the United States for higher education has declined.

In 2019-20, the number dropped from 202,000 to 193,000. Prior to this, at least since 2014-15, the number of Indian students has been on the rise, albeit at a slower rate. U.S. Embassy officials on Monday described the trend in the 2020-21 data set as “Covid blip.” Donald Heflin, Minister Counselor for Consular Affairs of the Embassy, ​​said that the pandemic and the ensuing blockade posed a major challenge and raised safety concerns in the hearts of parents whose children were flying to the United States for higher education, but both sides did it.

Work hard (Heflin told reporters that this year’s situation has begun to improve, because the number of Indian students and exchange visitors who went to the United States to study this year is “in all-time records.” “Despite the global pandemic, Indian students are still able to apply for visas and Travel to the United States.

In this summer alone, we issued more than 62,000 student visas, more than in any previous year. This shows that the United States is still the top destination for Indian students who wish to study abroad,” he said. The decline in the number of international students is not limited to students from India.

In fact, overall, the number of global students in the United States has decreased by 15%. The Open Doors report is issued by the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs of the US State Department and the Institute of International Education.

News Source : The Indian Express