International student numbers in America hit a record high last year, driven by a 30 per cent increase in Chinese enrolment. There are now nearly 128,000 Chinese students in the US, making up more than 18 per cent of the country's international student population.
This makes China the largest source of students for the United States, replacing India, the Open Doors 2010 report published by the New York-based Institute of International Education shows.
At postgraduate level, applications from Chinese students, including Hongkongers, also soared, up 20 per cent this year, according to Debra Stewart, president of the Council of Graduate Schools, which represents more than 500 institutions in North America.
'Over the last six years, we have seen double-digit increases year over year in applications to US graduate schools from Chinese students. The application trend remains very strong,' Stewart says. 'What the US continues to offer is a set of very diverse but very high-quality graduate programmes, and a set of universities in which intellectual inquiry is strongly encouraged.'
US graduate schools allow students to study subjects different from what they majored in at undergraduate level, EducationUSA says.
Exposure to diverse cultures on US campuses has also been an attraction for mainland Chinese students, who in turn are able to study there because of their families' growing affluence.
The number of Hongkongers studying in the US has been rather steady, at about 8,000 a year, of whom close to 1,300 pursue postgraduate study.