The pace of Indian students going to the US is the lowest it has been in five years

• According to a recent study, the number of Indian students studying in the US increased by 5.4% in 2017-18 compared to last year. That growth rate is significantly lower than what has been seen in the last five year.
  
• Currently, a total of 196,271 Indians are studying in the US that make up 18% of the overall international enrollments.
  
• Meanwhile, the number of American students in India has seen a 12.5% rise over the past year by 4,704.
  

The growth rate of Indian students moving to the US for higher education appears to have slowed down significantly in the past few years, according to a recent report.

In 2017-18, while the number of Indian students studying in US universities went up by 5.4%, the rate of growth is down significantly from 29.4% seen in 2014-15 and 24.9% seen in 2015-16, PTI reported citing data from the 2018 Open Doors Report by the Institute of International Education in partnership with the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs

Overall, US universities have seen a nearly 50% drop in total number of international students from 300,743 in the year 2015-16. The overall enrollments for 2017-18 were down nearly 6.6% in contrast to the previous year.

To be sure, in terms of absolute numbers, currently there are about 196,271 Indians studying in US universities, and compared to other nationalities Indian students make up the second biggest chunk of international students at 18% behind China.

These numbers highlight the impact of restrictive immigration policies of the current Trump government.

On the flipside, the number of American students moving to India has also risen by 12.5% as compared to previous year by 4,704 in part due to the success of students exchange programs that foster meaningful relationships between American and Indian citizens, Adam Grotsky, Director of United States - India Educational Foundation, has said.