80% of Indian students in US are from TS, AP

Deepika Pasham
Hyderabad

Darren Wagner, Vice President, Strategic Enrolment Management and Rowan Global at Rowan University, while interacting with students and meeting company executives here, spoke about trends in the education abroad space and how Covid impacted a dramatic shift in career preferences, particularly for Indian students.Wagner visited the offices of Indo Global Studies of Hyderabad at their office in SkyView, Gachibowli on Wednesday.  
He was accompanied by Dr Mark S Kopenski, CEO of Global Student Recruitment Advisors.Ashok Kallam, Founder and Chairman of Indo Global Services also participated.

According to Wagner, after a two-year lull, an enrollment boom is being witnessed now. Students are facing rising costs which are causing them to consider alternative destinations. The trend is online courses, face-to-face courses, and hybrid models.

Overseas education has grown 80 per cent and reached pre-Covid levels with 54 per cent international students taking STEM Programs. Currently Canada and the USA are the biggest markets for overseas education in the world. STEM courses are still in demand. Computer Science and Cyber Security courses in the new wave of technologies are still preferred.

There is a significant growth in the number of Indian students. There has been an 18.9 per cent increase from India year over year, leading to 1,99,182 Indian students studying in the USA currently. Presently 80 per cent Indian students are going for graduation and 20 per cent for under graduation. About 78 per cent students are going for STEM programs.

Currently in the USA there are 1.6 million open jobs. “We are in great need of nurses and teachers and not many are willing to get into those areas”, he said.

Hyderabad is one of the largest markets in India, particularly for students looking at the US as a study destination.This year there is a greater push for Optional Practical Training. Over one million international students are opting OPT, which allows international students to work in the USA for an initial period of 12 months, with the possibility for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) students to extend this by a further 24 months.

Indian international students are growing. But there has been a sharp decline in Chinese in the recent past. About 80 per cent Indian international students are from two Telugu states Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Canada, the USA, the UK, and Australia are the preferred destinations for Indian students, he said.