Washington -- International graduate enrollment
at U.S. universities has increased for the first time in
four years and that increase is driven by a 12 percent increase
in first-time enrollment, the Council of Graduate Schools
(CGS) reports in a new study.
The CGS study, which is based on fall 2006
enrollment figures, confirms the findings of recent reports
by the National Science Foundation and the American Council
on Education, which showed that over the past century the
United States increasingly has become an educator to the
world. (See related
article.)
Enrollment figures for international graduate
students declined in the aftermath of the September 11,
2001, terrorist attacks on the United States but now are
rebounding, according to CGS President Debra Stewart, who
credits the U.S. departments of State and Homeland Security
and U.S. graduate schools for the turnaround.
“The increases reflect positively
on both U.S. government policy changes and the outreach
efforts of graduate schools themselves,” Stewart told
the Washington File November 1, the day of the
study’s release.
“These findings confirm that there
has been a recovery in international graduate students flows
to the United States, and I am optimistic that this encouraging
trend will continue,” Stewart said.
What matters even more than the numbers
of students admitted to U.S. graduate schools is the quality
of those international students, Stewart noted. But here,
too, the facts are encouraging: 99 percent of the graduate
schools responding to a CGS survey in August said that the
quality of international graduate students being admitted
for study is as good or better than in the past.
In terms of total enrollment, the CGS survey
shows a 1 percent increase in fall 2006 as compared to fall
2005 enrollment numbers. This contrasts with a 3 percent
decrease between fall 2005 and fall 2004. The 12 percent
increase in first-time enrollment for fall 2006 compares
with a 1 percent increase in 2005 above 2004 levels. Because
graduate degrees can take a long time to complete, it takes
several years for increases in first-time enrollment to
be fully reflected in total enrollment.
The biggest increases in first-time enrollment
are among students from India (32 percent) and China (20
percent). First-time enrollments of students from the Middle
East rose 1 percent.
The fields of engineering (22 percent) and
business (10 percent) showed the biggest increases.
The CGS data are based on the responses
of 175 graduate schools, including 80 percent of the 25
institutions with the largest student enrollments, according
to CGS.
STUDENT VISAS GENERALLY PROCESSED WITHIN
TWO DAYS
Perceptions in some parts of the world that
it became more difficult to get a student visa after September
11, 2001, are “outdated,” according to Maura
Harty, assistant secretary of state for consular affairs,
who addressed the issue earlier in 2006 at the U.S. University
Presidents Summit on International Education. (See related
article.)
At the same conference, U.S. Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice said that almost all visa applications
-- some 97 percent -- are processed within two days.
“Outdated perceptions regarding changes
to visa processing could not be more different from today’s
reality,” Rice said. “Even for the small fraction
of applicants who require additional processing for security
reasons, we have reduced the processing time from weeks,
months, sometimes never -- to less than 14 days.”
The State Department has taken a number
of steps to expedite the processing of student visa applications,
including adding new consular positions, negotiating extended
reciprocity agreements so that students are not required
to apply for visas as frequently, and directing U.S. embassies
and consulates to put student and exchange visitors at the
head of the queue when scheduling visa interviews.
Stewart said these changes have helped reduce
the waiting time for students.
According to Open Doors 2005, a
study by the Institute of International Education, approximately
565,039 students came from around the world to study at
schools of higher education in the United States in 2005.
The leading country of origin was India, which sent 80,466
students, followed by China and the Republic of Korea, which
sent 62,523 and 53,358 students, respectively.
For information on studying in the United
States, see the State Department’s EducationUSA
Web site.
Information on visa procedures and traveling
to the United States is available at www.travel.state.gov
and in the electronic journal See
You in the U.S.A.
Jeffrey Thomas
Washington File Staff Writer
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