According to a report by the International Educational Exchange (IIE), India has become the top priority recruitment market in the United States for both undergraduate and graduate programs in 2023. The report, based on responses from 527 U.S. higher educational institutes between April 27 and May 19, 2023, highlights a shift in focus towards attracting students from markets other than China, which was previously the dominant target.
While China remains a priority for many U.S. institutes of higher education, the report indicates a significant emphasis on recruiting students from India. Out of the surveyed institutions, 77 percent focused on recruiting graduate-level students, while 57 percent targeted undergraduate-level students.
These findings align with research from the Council of Graduate Schools, which shows that Indian students are driving the growth of applications and enrollment at the graduate level in the United States.
The report also mentions other top priority markets for undergraduate-level recruitment in the U.S., including Vietnam (48 percent), South Korea (41 percent), Brazil (40 percent), and China (39 percent). At the graduate level, China ranked second, with fewer mentions (42 percent) compared to India.
While China currently sends the highest number of students to the U.S. for higher education, accounting for 30.5 percent of all international students in the country in 2021-2022, Indian enrollments have seen a significant year-over-year increase of 18.9 percent. The rise in Indian applications for graduate programs, as reported by the Council of Graduate Schools, combined with the IIE’s recent findings, suggests that the proportion of Indian students in U.S. higher education is likely to grow beyond the 21 percent recorded in 2021-22 in the coming years.
