Number of New Chinese Students at U.S. Colleges Plummeted This Fall, Visa Data Show

For American colleges, the record growth in visa issuances to Indian students goes a long way toward offsetting Chinese enrollment losses. It’s possible that the increase could have been even more robust if not for a substantial visa-application backlog in India. Current estimated wait times for student-visa appointments at American consulates in New Delhi and Mumbai are 430 days.

Several factors are likely at play in the increased demand from Indian students, said Rajika Bhandari, an expert in international-student mobility and author of America Calling: A Foreign Student in a Country of Possibility, which is about her own experience as a student from India. Such factors include a growing college-age population and too few top-quality universities to meet that demand. Online resources have given students outside India’s major cities better access to information about study abroad. And greater availability of student loans has made it possible for students from lower- and middle-income families to pay for a foreign degree.

Read the full article from The Chronicle of Higher Education click here.