More than 55,000 Indian students and exchange visitors to the United States have been given student visas in 2021 despite the Covid-19 pandemic. This number is at an all-time high despite numerous travelling challenges during these unprecedented times.
According to the latest Open Doors Press Release on international education exchange, international students contributed 44 billion USD to the US economy and India remained the second-largest source of international students in America.
US universities are looking forward to an excellent academic year, with many of them having welcomed international students, both new and returning, in the past few weeks.
Typically, the embassies and consulates begin interviewing fall semester students in May. However, the second wave of Covid-19 delayed the commencement of the student visa session by two long months.
As soon as a few restrictions were lifted in July, the visa services were resumed, and consular teams worked at surpassing their pre-Covid workloads.
What draws Indian students to the US?
In India, students are eager to study abroad in 2021 more than in the last year, due to pent up demand because of visa restrictions, travel concerns and travel availability since the pandemic.
The US is an attractive destination due to its excellent reputation for high-quality tertiary education and career opportunities after graduation.
To project the statistics on the study abroad patterns in the current era, when the pandemic is slowly subsiding, the Mentor Conference 2021 Polls conducted by Foreign Admits show that despite the pandemic, 64 percent of Indian students plan on studying abroad in the United States of America and Canada.
However, one of the primary reasons that make the US a special allure is the country’s reputation for renowned higher-education programs. Nearly fifty percent of the world’s top 50 universities are in the US, riding high on their small class sizes, highly accredited professors, and advanced technology and research proficiencies. Recently, all Study Group university partners in America rank in the top 9% The US News Best CollegesLeague Table, both nationally and regionally.
Students can choose from a wide range of subjects — from Engineering, Political Science, International Law, International relations, Business, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence to Psychology, Health Sciences and Arts-based subjects.
They can also be a part of ground-breaking research that receives generous funds. All of these offer a competitive edge to the students once they are ready for the job market. Moreover, they also get to connect with a diverse range of people while studying in the US, enhancing their ability to interact with people from other cultures and analyse issues from a global perspective.
International graduate success
Universities in the US excel at research and producing cutting-edge science and technology proposals. After all, the students here get exposed to some of the best minds on the planet, which widens their horizons.
No wonder there are so many well-known Indians who travelled to the US for studies and today are listed among accomplished Americans.
Shantanu Narayen (President & CEO, Adobe), Rakesh Gangwal (Owner of IndiGo ariline), Nikesh Arora (President, and COO, Softbank Corp), Vinita Gupta (Co-founder, Digital Link Corp), Vinod Khosla (Co-founder, Sun Microsystems), Sanjay Mehrotra (Co-founder and CEO, SanDisk), Prabhu Goel (Founder, Foundation for Excellence), Talat Hasan (Co-founder, India Community Center), Lata Krishnan (Chairman, American India Foundation) and Kumar Malavalli (Co-Founder, Brocade Communications) are a few of them creating an impact.
The road ahead
The US Mission to India also stated that the diversity of the American higher education system comprised over 4500 nationally and regionally accredited colleges and universities in the US, recognised worldwide for the quality of their programs and facilities.
Efforts to improve academic collaboration between the two countries have been reciprocated with growing interest from Indian students to study in America.
Furthermore, the US mission to India also recently invited students to participate in the Education USA University Virtual Fairs for graduate and undergraduate students.
– Article by Joshua Rubin, Executive Vice President for Higher Education in North America, Study Group
Read: 94% Indian students say they are more eager to study abroad in 2021 than in 2020: Study
