Indian students on F1 visa in the US increases by 31%, jumps to more than 194,000

Nearly 1.2 million international students in the US.

AB Wire

Despite growing rhetoric in the presidential race against H-1B visa, allegations of displacement of American workers, with promises to safeguard against influx of foreign labor, as well as luck playing a big role in getting a job in the country because of a lottery system to determine H-1B visas, there is no effect on the number of Indian students coming to the US on an F1 visa, for both undergraduate and graduate degree programs. In fact, latest data shows a drastic increase in the influx compared to the previous year.

The number of Indian students in American universities and colleges is now over 194,000, a jump of more than 31 per cent in one year, says data released by Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVIS), on Friday.

.”The number of F&M students from India studying in the US grew from 148,360 in March 2015 to 194,438 in March 2016, an increase of 31.1 per cent,” according to the latest ‘SEVIS by the Numbers’, a quarterly report on foreign student trends.

There are nearly 1.2 million international students with F (academic) or M (vocational) status studying in the US. SEVIS is part of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations.

Based on data extracted from SEVIS as of March 7, 2016, international student enrollment at US schools increased 6.2 per cent compared to March 2015, said reports. In March of this year, there were 8,687 US schools with SEVIS certification to enroll international students, a three per cent decrease from the previous year, ICE said in a release.

According to the report, 82 per cent of F & M students from India pursue degrees in a STEM field. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics, reported the Press Trust of India.

“More STEM students are from India than any other country,” it said.

On the other hand, 69 per cent of all F & M students who pursue mathematics and statistics coursework are from China, it said. ICE report said 40 per cent of international students studying in the US, equaling almost 479,000 individuals, were enrolled in STEM coursework.

Approximately 417,000 international students from Asia pursued STEM studies, an increase of 17 per cent since March 2015, it added.