Students from Asia ranked in the top 10 among the number of international students studying at universities in the U.S., according to the Institute of International Education’s (IIE) yearly Open Doors report.
According to the report on international education exchange released earlier this week, the 2021-2022 school year saw nearly 948,000 international students from over 200 countries and territories studying at American universities.
About 290,000 students from China studied in the U.S. this school year, an 8.6% decrease from the previous year but still enough to land the country the top spot at No. 1.
The report revealed that 37.7% of those students were undergraduates, 42.5% graduates, 2.1% pursuing non-degree programs and the remaining 17.6% were enrolled in optional practical training.
The data also showed the number of Chinese students in the U.S. had jumped over the past two decades, even before the onset of the pandemic.
Chinese students were most interested in the fields of business and management, engineering, math, computer science and social sciences, according to the study.
Vietnam also broke into the top five for the first time, with 20,713 students making up 2% of all international students and contributing $721 million to the U.S. economy.
The number of Vietnamese students declined over the past three school years, from 24,392 students in 2018-2019 to 23,777 during 2019-2020 and 21,361 during 2020-2021, VnExpress reported.
India ranked second on the list and also had the largest percentage change from the previous year with a 19% increase.
Other Asian countries that ranked in the top 10 this year include South Korea at No. 3 and Taiwan at No. 6. Japan nearly broke through the top at No. 11.
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