Washington, DC: The number of Indian students in the United States increased by over 12 percent in 2021, while those from China which accounts for the largest number, dropped by more than eight percent, a governmental report said Wednesday.
In its annual report, US Citizenship and Immigration Services said the COVID-19 pandemic continued to impact international student enrolment in the United States in 2021.
The total number of SEVIS records for active F-1 and M-1 students was 1,236,748 in the calendar year 2021, a decrease of 1.2 percent from the calendar year 2020.
SEVIS stands for Students and Exchange Visitor Information System. F-1 and M-1 are the two non-immigrant student visas. J-1 is also a non-immigrant student visa but is mostly given to scholars exchange programs.
In 2021, 8,038 SEVP-certified schools were eligible to enroll international students, registering a decrease by 280 schools from 8,369 eligible schools in 2020.
“The number of students from China and India made Asia the most popular continent of origin. However, China sent fewer students in 2021 in comparison to 2020 (-33,569) while India sent more students (+25,391),” the report said.
As many as 37 percent of Indian students are females.
Overall, China continues to top the list of countries sending 348,992 students to the United States. India follows China with 232,851 students. China and India are followed by South Korea (58,787), Canada (37,453), Brazil (33,552), Vietnam (29,597), Saudi Arabia (28,600), Taiwan (25,406), Japan (20,144) and Mexico (19,680).
