Foreign students' applications to American graduate schools climbed by 2 percent this year, driven in part by continued growth in applications from India, according to survey results released today by the Council of Graduate Schools.
Applications from India increased by 12 percent over the previous year, the third straight year of such double-digit increases.
Meanwhile, the number of applications from China continued its modest decline -- another trend that's three years running -- dropping by 2 percent. These two country-specific trends -- China down, India up -- should be understood against the fact these two countries are the two largest sources of international students at U.S. graduate schools by far, together accounting for about 67 percent of all international applications received.
"China has been investing pretty heavily in its higher education capacity for both graduate education and research," said Jeff Allum, the author of the report and the council's director of research and policy analysis. "I suspect that might be one reason why the number of applications from China appears to be going down, but there may be other reasons that quite frankly we're not fully able to explain yet."
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/06/30/council-graduate-schools-survey-shows-continuing-increase-international-student