US student visa applications sees 40% increase

The US consulate has seen a 40% increase in the number of students applying for students visa last year. This shows the increasing interest among Indian students applying for the US student visa last year. The second largest international students population in the US are Indians.

Consul General Phillip Min, at an inauguration of the US Universities Fair in Chennai, said, that at present there were over one lakh Indian students studying in the US universities. He said that out of the total number of students who were studying abroad, more than half were into the STEM subjects - Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

The fair saw 24 universities from across the US offering both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Maya Sundararajan, regional officer, United States India Education Foundation (USIEF), said that apart from graduate students, there has been an increasing interest among high school students to pursue their higher education in the United States.

"The students are also making use of the multidisciplinary approach offered by the US. Apart from their majors in subjects like science and technology, students choose to couple minors like fine arts, sports or subjects like computer science along with biology," she said.