What’s new: The number of Chinese people studying in the U.S. declined for a third straight school year in 2022-2023, in large part because fewer are going there for an undergraduate education, a recent report showed.
Chinese mainland students studying in the U.S. slipped 0.2% year-on-year to 289,526 during the 2022-2023 school year, according to the 2023 Open Doors report published earlier this month by the U.S. government-funded Institute of International Education (IIE).
However, the number of Chinese students pursuing undergraduate degrees in the country was down 8.4% from the 2021-2022 school year, dropping to a little over 100,000, the report said. Meanwhile, the number of Chinese students in the U.S. who are not seeking a degree, such as exchange students, jumped by 29% year-on-year to 8,016.
What’s more: China remained the top source of international students in the U.S. during the 2022-2023 school year, accounting for 27% of the total. India was second with 25% of the 1.06 million total. The number of students from India studying in the U.S. rose 35% from the previous academic year to 268,923.
The South Asian country has been a key target of U.S. university recruiters. For the current 2023-2024 school year, India “continues to be the highest priority for undergraduate and graduate recruitment,” the IIE said in a statement accompanying the report’s release on Nov. 13.
International students made up 6% of the U.S. higher education population and contributed around $38 billion to the U.S. economy during the 2022-2023 school year, the report said, citing data from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Contact reporter Kelly Wang (jingzhewang@caixin.com) and editor Michael Bellart (michaelbellart@caixin.com)
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