India with 67,800 students accounts for largest number of foreign students in science and engineering in the United States and is followed by China with 53,740 pupils, the National Science Foundation has said.
India has maintained its significant lead over China and other countries despite the fact that in the last one year, new enrolment from India in Science and Engineering dropped by 17 per cent and those from China jumped by 25 per cent.
Two countries - India with 68,000 S&E students and China with 54,000 - accounted for almost half (47 per cent) of all foreign S&E students (258,950) in the United States in December 2009, the National Science Foundation said.
"Overall S&E enrollment from India and from China increased in 2009, but the situation among new S&E students was more mixed: enrollment of new S&E students from India declined 17 per cent, but enrollment of new S&E students from China increased 25 per cent," it said in its latest report.
"Overall S&E enrollment and enrollment of new S&E students from South Korea were about the same in 2009 as in 2008. In addition, S&E enrollment in the United States increased from the Middle East (notably Saudi Arabia and Iran) and Africa but decreased from Europe, Central and South America, and Canada," the report said.
Noting that level of enrollment and fields of study differ by country of citizenship, the report said two of the top three countries - India and China - send far more S&E than non-S&E students and more graduate students than undergraduate students to the United States.
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More than half of the students from India study engineering or computer sciences, mostly at the master's level. Almost half of the students from China study either business or engineering.
Most Chinese business students (96 per cent) are enrolled in undergraduate or master's programs, and more than half of Chinese engineering students are enrolled in doctoral programs.
In contrast, South Korea sends far more non-S&E than S&E students and more undergraduate than graduate students. More than two-thirds of the students from South Korea are enrolled in non-S&E fields.
Business and humanities account for the largest numbers of South Koreans in non-S&E fields, and engineering accounts for the largest number of South Koreans enrolled in S&E fields, it said.
According to the report, Canada, India and the United Kingdom send the largest numbers of nonnative-born citizens to study S&E in the United States.