Chinese students flock to American universities
Numbers up 21pc in a year, part of record influx of international students to America; more US students also going abroad, including to China
Hundreds of thousands of Chinese students are flocking to US colleges and universities, helping to push the number of international students studying in America to record levels.
The findings are in an analysis that was conducted by a nonprofit group that worked with the US State Department. It was released yesterday.
Foreign students contribute about US$24 billion annually to the US economy, and about two-thirds of them primarily pay their own way or their families do, according to the Institute of International Education and the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
All told, 819,644 students came to the United States to study in the 2012-2013 school year. The highest numbers were from China, India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Canada. That is a record high, up 7 per cent from a year earlier and 40 per cent from more than a decade ago.
Despite the increases, international students make up fewer than 4 per cent of all students.
About 235,000 of the international students were from China, a 21 per cent increase year on year. A burgeoning middle class in China was cited as a factor. About one-third studied business and management once they arrived, the report said.