The US Customs Student and Exchange Visitor Immigration Program has issued a latest data for September 2022 indicating the spike in Indian enrolments in the US. By contrast, Chinese enrolments are continuously declining, as per the report.

Overall, the total number of F-1 visas granted to foreign students for the May month through August 2022 is 282,000 which is somewhat more than numbers of the same months of 2021 i.e. +2%, as per the The Chronicle of Higher Education's analysis of US Department of State data.

China's Decline to US:

In May to August 2022, the US released 45% less F-1 visas to Chinese students which shows a steep decline from this source market as compared to 2021's data.

The Chronicle also explained that various factors sparked this sharp decline including the rise of US-China tensions during the Trump Administration and the travel restrictions imposed during the pandemic on Chinese students made it hard for them to travel to the US than other foreign students - "The early outbreak of COVID in China led the US government to impose a travel ban on visitors, including student-visa holders, from China in the first months of the pandemic, and it was not lifted until May 2021".

These restrictions forced Chinese students to first travel to a third country for quarantine. During the 2020 summer, the US Govt issued only around 500 visas to Chinese students.

Currently, Chinese students are appearing to steering towards Europe – especially the UK. The number of study permits issued to Chinese students to attend UG programmes in UK universities for the upcoming session grew by 12%. These numbers have grown by 50% over the duration of 05 years from 2016-17 to 2020-21.

India's Boost of Recovery:

For Now, it could be said that India is boosting the recovery of the catastrophic state of the US International Education Sector keeping in mind the decline in Chinese enrolments. But according to the Chronicle for the Indian enrolments in US between May and Aug 2022 - "More than 84,000 student visas were issued to Indian students over the summer — 45% more visas than during the same four months last year and a staggering 148% more than during that span in 2019."

However, the US is not the only country seeing spike in the number of Indian students. In the UK, the Indian students' number also grew to 84,445 in 2020-21 as compared to 2019-20's 55,465 numbers. This change shows the clear rise in the proportion of Indian students from 10% to 19% within the duration of 01 year.

In Canada, Indian students alone constitute 35% of the total foreign student population.

Source: monitor.icef.com