Vijayawada ranks number one in the US in terms of percentage.
By Sujeet Rajan
WASHINGTON, DC: Eight of the top 10 cities worldwide which by percentage sent the most students to study in the US on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) related programs during 2008-2012 out of total F-1 visas granted, are astonishingly from India, says a new report released by the think tank, The Brookings Institution.
In terms of sheer numbers, Hyderabad tops the list of students from India who were enrolled in STEM-related programs during that time-frame, with 20,840 students out of a total of 26,220 students from Hyderabad who got F-1 visas.
Hyderabad was also the number one city globally in terms of sheer numbers, to send students to pursue STEM programs in the US. It ranked fourth for the percentage of its students pursuing a STEM degree (80 percent) during the 2008-2012 period.
In terms of numbers, Beijing followed Hyderabad with 19, 605 STEM students, followed in order by Seoul (11,628); Shanghai (10,768); Mumbai (10,638); Chennai (7,342); Riyadh (6,817); Bangalore (6,470); Jeddah (4,933); and Taipei (4,802).
In terms of percentage of students who are pursuing STEM subjects out of total number of students who received F-1 visas from a particular city, Vijayawada ranks at number one in the US for that five year time-frame, with 1,867 STEM students out of 2,181 visas, at an incredible percentage of 85.6 percent.
The other cities who follow are Visakhapatnam (1,482 out of 1,840); Chennai (7,342 out of 9,141); Hyderabad (20,840 out of 26,220); Secunderabad (2,333 out of 2,969); Pune (4,270 out of 5,551); Tehran in Iran (4,668 out of 6,154); Bangalore (6,470 out of 8,835); Kolkata (2,570 out of 3,881) and Dhaka in Bangladesh (2,179 out of 3,450).
Though Hyderabad tops the list of STEM students in the US during 2008-2012, it has a blemish also, points out the Brookings report.
Notably, 91 percent of students from Hyderabad were studying for a master’s degree, versus only 4 percent for a bachelor’s degree. The vast majority were studying for computer and information sciences (9,100) and engineering (8,800) degrees.
However, here’s the catch: the top five destination schools of F-1 students from Hyderabad are institutions with no major research activity under the Carnegie classification system. The largest is International Technological University (ITU), a non-profit accredited Master’s Medium-Sized College with no research activity.
Other top destination schools of foreign students from Hyderabad include for-profit Master’s Small and Larger Programs such as University of Northern Virginia (unaccredited and shut down by Department of Homeland Security for visa and Optional Practical Training (OPT) fraud), Stratford University (accredited), Tri- Valley University (unaccredited and shut down by DHS for visa and Optional Practical Training (OPT) fraud) and Herguan University (unaccredited).
It’s not a surprise that the most popular major field for foreign students pursuing a Bachelor’s, Master’s or Doctoral (BMD) degree falls under business, management or marketing, with 30 percent of all students on F-1 visas from 2008 to 2012, compared to 21 percent overall enrollment in U.S. higher educational schools. Business tends to be the most popular field of study among bachelor’s and master’s students, while STEM fields dominate among foreign students pursuing doctoral degrees.
However, collectively, the STEM fields accounted for 37 percent of all F-1 visa approvals, compared to 27 percent overall. Within the STEM fields, engineering is the most popular major, followed by computer and information sciences and biological and biomedical sciences.
Among foreign STEM students, 31 percent are from China, 27 percent from India and 5 percent from South Korea.
Among foreign students pursuing business degrees, Beijing, Seoul, Shanghai, Riyadh and Taipei are the predominant source cities, while smaller but fast-growing Asian cities (Ulan Bator, Hanoi, Ningbo) exhibit the highest shares of their students in that field.
According to the Brookings report, foreign STEM students tend to locate in U.S. metro areas that are either STEM-heavy economies, or are home to STEM-specialized institutions of higher education. Some metro areas have industries demanding a large number of STEM educated graduates such as San Jose, CA (62 percent of foreign students studying STEM). Others such as Lafayette, IN (64 percent), are home to STEM-focused institutions like Purdue University.
The large majority of foreign BMD STEM students (72 percent) study at the 207 doctoral-granting U.S. universities with high- or very-high research activity and their metropolitan geography reflects in part the geography of those institutions. Large, economically diverse metro areas such as New York (31,800), Los Angeles (20,200) and Boston (14,200) attract the most foreign STEM students in absolute numbers since they house many research universities.
2 Comments
List of all engineering colleges in south india:
http://www.agarum.com/tamil-nadu/engineering/colleges
“Tamil nadu” is not “south india” FYI… It consists of 4-5 states.