Foreign students storm the US: Five facts about who they are

International students flocked to US colleges and universities in record numbers in the 2010-11 academic year. The number jumped 5 percent in one year, and foreign students now contribute more than $21 billion to the US economy – making higher education a top US service-sector export, a new report finds. Here are five ways the makeup of international students in the US is changing.

3. Fewer from India

Fayaz Kabli /REUTERS/File
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addresses Indian students and university officials in New Delhi on July 20, 2009.

India has been the No. 1 source of foreign students in the US for much of the past decade, dethroned by China only in 2009. The 2010-11 numbers suggest the bloom may be off the American higher-education rose for some Indians.

The number of Indian students declined 1 percent from 2009-10, to 103,895 – a decline that appears to track a recent trend among Indian nationals working in the US who are choosing to return to a more robust economy at home.

As for declines, the "Open Doors" study reveals that Brazil (another of the so-called BRICS countries of emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) also saw a small drop in the number of students it is sending for study in the US.

Could it be that some of these emerging economies are feeling less compelled to send their students abroad when their own economies are booming?

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