The Open Doors report for 2020-21, the latest annual comprehensive edition on International Student Enrolment in US higher education institutions, shows an overall decline of 15 percent and a 13 percent decline for Indian students in particular. It also shows that the Indian students are the second-largest cohort (93,981 excluding post-study participants) among international students in the US even with declining numbers during the 2020-21 academic year. Drop-in Indian student enrolment numbers were seen for the first time in 2020 when it fell under one hundred thousand since 2014.

However, the Fall 2021 snapshot report from the Institute of International Education (IIIE) on International Student Enrolment in the US released recently shows that the US higher education institutions are making a partial recovery in 2021. This report provides preliminary data from a limited number of universities for 2021-22 and does not include disaggregated international student numbers by country.

The early trends from the Fall report suggest that new international enrolments have recovered somewhat in 2021, increasing by 68 percent compared to the 2020 entry cycle, but still remain below their level in 2019. Further, Asia is going to be the renewed focus for outreach for the US higher education institutions for the ongoing recruitment cycle and within that India with a 56 percent target followed by China at 51 percent and  Vietnam at 43 percent. The full picture of the 2021-22 academic year will though be available only in November 2022 with the release of the 2022 edition of the Open Doors report.

British Council Comments:

The Indian student numbers were a record high in 2018-19, breaching the 200,000 mark but since then began to decline due to the effects of the Covid 19 pandemic and the then immigration policies and unpredictable international policies.

When the Indian student numbers in the US began to decline, the UK experienced a strong growth; the Indian students doubled in 2019/20 compared to the previous year and are steadily increasing. The resilience of the UK HE sector, its policies and support to international students in the wake of the pandemic, and the graduate work route, in particular, have played an important role in the sterling growth. However, the overall student sentiment towards the US seems to be changing this year as is evident from the early trends reported in the Fall 2021 snapshot. The US counsel has also confirmed the issuance of over 62,000 visas to Indian students this summer alone, more than in any previous year. These numbers are similar to total UK student visa issuances to Indian students across the first three quarters of the year (61,966), meaning that the US is still ahead of the UK in terms of the number of Indian students heading overseas for education.

If you have any questions, please write to Sandeepa Sahay

For more details, please refer to the below-mentioned links:

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/covid-effect-indians-in-us-varsities-fell-by-13-in-2020/articleshow/87725957.cms

https://opendoorsdata.org/data/international-students/enrollment-trends/

https://www.iie.org/en/Research-and-Insights/Publications/Fall-2021-International-Student-Enrollment-Snapshot

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2021/11/15/sharp-drop-in-international-college-students-in-2020-21-but-the-numbers-are-rebounding-this-year/?sh=3d3e30961a46

https://opendoorsdata.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/OD21_Fast-Facts-2021.pdf