India, China contribute 47 percent of foreign students in 2020
IN 2020, nearly half (47 percent) of the international students in the US are from India and China, a new official data showed.
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), report has said that there were 1.25 million active records in Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) for F-1 and M-1 students during calendar year 2020, a 17.86 percent decrease from 2019.
Forty-seven percent (590,021) of all active SEVIS records hailed from either China (382,561) or India (207,460) in calendar year 2020, a slight decrease from 48 percent in 2019.
While China saw a drop of 91,936 or 19.38 percent students, whereas India sent 41,761, 16.76 percent fewer students compared with 2019.
But both countries saw fewer students in 2020 than the previous year as international student population declined significantly due to Covid-19 global pandemic, the annual Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) report said.
Other Asian countries also sent fewer students including South Korea (-15,854), Saudi Arabia (-15,244), and Japan (-10,897).
Meanwhile, US schools saw a 72 percent fall in new international student enrollment in 2020 compared to 2019 even as enrollment in January 2020 was on par with January 2019 enrollment for both F international students and M international students.
Also, US schools saw dramatic decreases in new international student enrollment in both August and September, the months where the largest numbers of new international students enroll in US schools, the report noted.
In August last year, there was a 91 percent decrease in new F-1 international student enrollment and a 72 percent decrease in new M-1 international student enrollment at US schools.
International students who obtained an Employment Authorization Document (EAD) to participate in the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program, decreased by 12 percent from 2019 to 2020.
All continents saw an overall decline in the number of students coming to the US from 220 countries in 2020, the report noted.