American campuses are becoming increasingly popular destinations for international students who want to attend grad school, according to new research. The Council of Graduate schools reports that new enrollment from foreign students increased by eight percent in 2011. There hasn’t been gain that significant since 2006. International students make up about 14.2 percent of the country’s entire graduate student body.
Several U.S. graduate enrollment programs from other countries have progressed, most notably China. The presence of Chinese grad students in America grew by 21 percent. That’s compared to a growth of 20 percent, 16 percent and 14 percent in each of the past three years. Coming to the U.S. for grad school is also popular in the Middle East, which had an enrollment eight percent higher than last year.
India also had a modest gain with two percent more students in American programs this year. South Korea is a different story, though. With a steady decrease of students from the country coming to enroll in U.S. grad schools, this year the rate fell flat.
The most popular programs among international students are arts and humanities, business, education, engineering, life sciences, physical and Earth sciences, social sciences and psychology. Private institutions remain more popular than public colleges.
