Students From India, Elsewhere Spend $15.5b In US

New Delhi, Nov 17 (UNI) As many as 94,563 students from India were enrolled in the United States in 2008, a 12.8 per cent increase, the United States embassy in New Delhi reported today.

Indians have been the largest foreign student population on American campuses, an embassy statement said, citing data published by Washington-based Institute of International Education.

China sent in 81,127 students, up 20 per cent, South Korea 69,124, up 11 per cent, and Japan 33,974, down four per cent, according to the Institute's Open Doors 2008 report.

The number of American students who studied in India during 2006-07 was 2,627, a 24 per cent increase over the previous year, the Institute said.

It said the number of international students at colleges and universities in the US rose by 7 per cent to a record high of 623,805 in the 2007-08 academic year.

Between them, these students and their families contributed .5 billion-- ,543,000,000-- to the US economy in 2007-08, the Institute said.

Business and Management studies drew most foreign students in the US, seven per cent more and 20 per cent of the total, followed by Engineering, eight per cent more and 17 per cent of the total. Also popular was Agriculture.

For the seventh consecutive year, the University of Southern California hosted the largest number of international students this year, 7,189, the report said.

New York University moved from third to second place with 6,404 international students, and Columbia University, now in third place, hosted 6,297 international students. it said.

Open Doors reported that 153 US campuses each hosted more than 1,000 students.

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