International student numbers grow at U.S. colleges
By Karen Farkas, Plain Dealer
CLEVELAND, Ohio – The number of international students attending U.S. colleges continues to grow, and about a third are from China, according to a report issued this week.
In the 2012-13 school year, 235,597 of the 819,644 international students on U.S. campuses, or 28.7 percent, arrived from China, according to the annual Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange published by the Institute of International Education.
The number of students from China increased 21.4 percent from the previous year.
Following China, the top “places of origin” are India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Canada, the report said. That order has not changed for years. Those five account for about 60 percent of all international students.
However, Brazil and Iran are moving up in the standings, and each saw a more than 20 percent increase in students attending U.S. colleges.
There are now 40 percent more international students studying at U.S. colleges than a decade ago, and the rate of increase has risen steadily for the past three years, the report said.
