While foreign destinations continue to be favoured by Indian students for higher studies, a recent study by the Brookings Institute in Washington DC has revealed that Hyderabad tops the list of the cities from which Indians go to the United States.
The study reveals that 94 foreign cities together accounted for more than half of all students on an F-1 visa between 2008 and 2012 in the US. Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Hyderabad and Riyadh are the five foreign cities that sent the most higher education students to the US during that time.
Findings of the report made on a new database on foreign student visa approvals from 2001 to 2012 suggest that most foreign students come from large fast-growing cities in emerging markets. It also suggests that the number of foreign students on F-1 visas in US colleges and universities has grown dramatically from 110,000 in 2001 to 524,000 in 2012.
The report says that foreign students disproportionately study STEM and business fields. Two-thirds of foreign students pursuing a bachelor's or higher degree are in science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) or business, management and marketing fields, versus 48 per cent of students in the United States.
The findings suggest that foreign students can provide important economic benefits to their US metropolitan destinations-serving as bridges back to their growing home cities and offering valuable skills to local employers.
Foreign students constitute a large source of export earnings for US metropolitan economies. Specially teh ones pursuing bachelor's degrees, who mostly pay full tuition from personal sources and pay higher tuition costs at public universities than in-state students.
The large majority of foreign students from these 94 cities have ties to potentially large consumer and investment markets. Seventy-five per cent of foreign students come from places with populations of 5 million or more. Only 11 per cent of F-1 students came from small cities with populations under 2.5 million and 13 per cent from middle-sized cities with populations between 2.5 and 5 million.
Large Asian cities dominate the list of largest home markets for US foreign students. Seoul (South Korea) sent more BMD F-1 students than any other city: more than 56,000 students over the 2008-2012 period, accounting for almost 5 per cent of all such students. Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Hyderabad (India) and Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) made up the other top five global cities, each sending between 17,000 and 50,000 students to the United States.
Three of the top 20 source cities are actually very low income cities with GDP per capita at or below USD 5,000. Hyderabad, for example was ranked fourth with more than 26,000 BMD degree students despite ranking 88th on GDP per capita. Nepal's Kathmandu and Chennai are the remaining two cities among the top 20 source hometowns with GDP per capita below USD 5,000.
The home countries and cities of foreign students in STEM and business fields include many fast-growing and professionalizing economies in Asia. Hyderabad sent the largest number of STEM students (20,800) to the United States and ranked fourth for the percentage of its students pursuing a STEM degree (80 percent) during the 2008-2012 period.
Notably, 91 percent of students from Hyderabad are studying for a master's degree, versus only 4 per cent for a bachelor's degree. The vast majority were studying for computer and information sciences (9,100) and engineering (8,800) degrees. The top five destination schools of F-1 students from Hyderabad are institutions with no major research activity under the Carnegie classification system.
The largest is International Technological University (ITU) while the others include University of Northern Virginia, Stratford University, Tri- Valley University and Herguan University.
Top origin cities of foreign students
Seoul, South Korea - 56,503 students
Beijing, China - 49,946 students
Shanghai, China - 29,145 students
Hyderabad, India - 26,220 students
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - 17,361 students
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