US registers 32% jump in graduate applications from India: survey

For the second year in a row, applications to US graduate schools from India skyrocketed in 2014, while those from prospective Chinese students fell, according to a new report.

According to the CGS International Graduate Admissions Survey, the number of applications from prospective Indian students to US graduate schools jumped 32 per cent in 2014.

The number of overall international applications, up 7 per cent, probably would have declined, except for eye-popping growth, of 32 per cent, from India.

"It's all India," said Debra W Stewart, the council's president. "India is huge."

In 2013, Indian applications increased 22 per cent and enrollments were up a whopping 40 per cent, the report said.

"While the growth from China has been consistent, Indian numbers have been erratic. One year, first-time graduate enrollments climbed more than 30 per cent, only to plummet 16 per cent a couple of years later," said educational portal Chronicle.com.

Stewart cited tightening student-visa rules in Britain. A recent report found that the number of first-time students at English universities from India and Pakistan had halved since 2010, and some of those students, Stewart said, could have opted to apply to institutions in the US instead.

"It's very difficult to trace cause and effect," she said, "but it seems that we're at least the short-term beneficiaries."