JNTU, OU ALUMNI HOLD MOST H-1B

Most H-1B visa holders from India in 2017 were students from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU) or colleges affiliated to it. Around 747 BTech alumni from JNTU secured H-1B visas in 2017, while Anna University, Chennai, was the leader with nearly 850 graduates.

Four of the top 10 universities in which most of the H-1B visaholders were educated are in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Some 223 alumni of Osmania University, 153 of Andhra University and 138 of Acharya Nagarjuna University were given H-1B visas, according to data sourced by Quartz from the Office of Foreign Labour Certification.

This seems to suggest that it’s not true that graduates and post-graduates of IITs, IIMs and BITS Pilani prefer to work abroad; most of those who went to the US on H-1B visas are from other universities. At the Master’s level, too, the largest number of those hired in 2017 was from JNTU and Anna University.

Experts say that this is not surprising as many tech-hubs and companies are in South India.

“The Indian tech giants are heavily vested in Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad and that’s where the bulk of their workforce is. So, it’s expected that majority of the applicants come from Anna University, JNTU, Madras University or Osmania University,” says an expert.

The fact that more students from Telugu states apply for the visa could be attributed to the craze among Telugu people to go abroad.

“While 30 per cent of H-1B visa holders are Indians, about 70 per cent of these are from the south. People are inclined to pursue engineering and go abroad unlike other states where they pursue different disciplines, including literature and the arts,” says another expert.