As the number of graduate students in the US hailing from China declines, the number of students from India is increasing, according to ScienceInsider.
A report from the Council of Graduate Schools says that that the number of applicants to US grad schools from India increased by 32 percent in the last year — and 22 percent the year before that — while the number of applicants from China declined slightly in the past two years. Likewise the number of students in India taking the GRE exam has risen by 70 percent.
"There's rising demand for higher education, growing aspirations, and affluence which enable people to go abroad," Rupa Chanda, an economics professor at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore tells ScienceInsider.
Part of the increase, ScienceInsider notes, may be the improving US economy as well as changes to student visa rules in the UK that make it more difficult for students to stay there after they receive their degree. Additionally, US schools have been targeting foreign students, especially ones who can pay tuition out of pocket.
At the same time, Chanda notes that China and other countries are building up their educational infrastructure. "[I]t's no longer necessary [for students in these countries] to go abroad to get the kind of degree you'd get if you went abroad," she says, adding that is not happening as much in India.