Indian science and engineering students have emerged as the most prominent group among foreigners pursuing masters and PhDs in US universities, according to a recent report by the National Science Foundation (NSF) of USA.
The 'Science and Engineering Indicators' published by the NSF’s National Science Board last month reports that almost one third of students in this category are from India, closely followed by China and South Korea.
The number of Indian students taking interest in US universities is increasing © USEFI 
"It’s not a surprise given the rise in foreign students generally," Joan S Burrelli, senior analyst in NSF’s Division of Science Resources Statistics told Nature India.
Not surprisingly, Indians account for more than half of all foreign students enrolled in computer courses and nearly 44 percent of those in engineering degrees. In this area of dominance, China and South Korea are at distant second and third places respectively.
In mathematics and physical sciences, China takes a wide lead over India in sending grad students to the US while marginally bettering India in biological and agricultural sciences. "Indian students are most likely to be in engineering and computer science, but I think business is a large field for them too," Burrelli says.
The reason for this surge, she feels, could be many – easing up of visa restrictions post 9/11, improvement in economic opportunities in the US as well as availability of opportunities in India itself.
B. S. Satyanarayana, scientific affairs specialist at the Embassy of USA in New Delhi, agrees. "It is affordable for a lot more people to go out of India and study now. And every country is facing this challenge of filling up science and engineering seats. So there’s an effort to get good students from across the world," he told Nature India.
India itself is planning a quantum jump in funding science education and research with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh committing to fund 30 new Central Universities, five new Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research, eight new Indian Institutes of Technology, and 20 new Indian Institutes of Information Technology.
However, in the NSF report, the Indian lead was not reflected in the undergrad science and engineering streams. Here, India ranked third after Japan and South Korea in 2007. On closer inspection of enrollments in the undergrad engineering courses alone, there was a surprise. Indians came out leaders again, accounting for 2,594 enrollments out of 20,924, followed by Saudi Arabia (1,642) and Japan (1,567).
According to projections, the number of college-age (20–24 years) individuals in the US is expected to grow from 20.8 million in 2005 to 26.3 million by 2050. This increase will mainly be from minority groups, particularly Asians and Hispanics, the NSF report said.
Naresh Kumar of the National Institute of Science Technology and Development Studies in New Delhi says USA is the largest recipient of foreign students and China and India send the maximum number of students abroad for higher studies1. According to his estimates, students from India to the US could be double (2.8 lakhs) compared to those from China (1.1 lakhs) by the year 2015.
