Reversing recent trends, prospective graduate students from India seeking admission in US institutions increased eight percent in 2011 after increasing just one percent in 2010, according to a new survey.
Ahead of India, however, were China which recorded double-digit increases in applications (21 percent) and the Middle East and Turkey (16 percent), according to the survey by Council of Graduate Schools (CGS).
Overall the number of prospective international students increased 11 percent between 2010 and 2011 with the rate of increase for fall 2011 outpacing that of the last four years.
Offers of admission to prospective graduate students from India too rose 8 percent in 2011, the first increase to occur since 2007, the survey noted.
For prospective graduate students from India, applications increased for the second year in a row and offers of admission increased for the first time since 2007.
These figures suggest that the recent trends for India and South Korea are reversing and that the numbers of these students in US graduate schools will once again increase, CGS said.
US has always been a popular destination for Indians and has become even more popular due to larger shifts in the other options available to Indian students, said Rahul Choudaha, director of development & innovation with World Education Services.
Of the 185,000 Indian students enrolled in higher education institutions abroad, US leads with a share of nearly 55 percent of all Indian students followed by Britain and Australia, according to UNESCO data, he noted.
Majority of Indian students enrol at graduate programmes, especially in engineering related fields, Choudaha said.
According to National Science Foundation 57 percent of all Indian students in the US were enrolled at master’s level programme in engineering and computer science in 2009.
An interesting trend for this year is higher acceptance of Indian students by institutions outside top-100.
Number of applications from Indian students to institutions outside top-100 has increased by 6 per cent, however, number of offers by institutions has increased by 12 per cent, indicating higher willingness of institutions to accept Indian students, Choudaha said.