India attracts just 0.52% of US students studying abroad, with the number of US students in the country declining sharply over the past decade, according to data from the Institute of International Education (IIE), a non-profit organization that receives funding from the US State Department, and reviewed by HT.
Only 1,578 American students chose to study in India out of 298,180 Americans studying abroad in 2023-24, the latest year for which data is available. This number represents a 65.6% decline from 2013-14 levels, when 4,583 American students came to India. In contrast, more than 360,000 Indian students are currently studying in the United States, representing 30.8% of all international students. India is the largest source of foreign students in America.
Data from the Institute of International Education show that the number of American students in India began declining before the Covid-19 pandemic, declined during the crisis, and has not yet recovered. India now attracts fewer American students than Belize, a country with a population of about 441,000 people, and slightly more than Vietnam and Ghana. The lower numbers represent a significant reversal from the previous period as India emerged as a popular destination for American students.
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In 2004-05, 1,767 American students came to India, placing the country among the top 25 study abroad destinations for Americans. Interest grew steadily after that. By 2011-12, the number had doubled to 4,593 students, making India the 12th most popular destination, just behind countries like Japan and Argentina.
The numbers continued to rise through 2016-17 before entering a long-term decline that was exacerbated by the pandemic. The number of American students in India fell by half in 2019-20 to just 16 in 2020-21. Although the numbers have since recovered, they remain lower than those in similar countries such as Brazil, which attracted fewer American students than India before the pandemic.
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Education consultants told HT that the relatively low ranking of Indian universities, differences in academic systems and inadequate infrastructure for international students are among the factors limiting India’s attractiveness.
“Indian universities don’t feature very high in global rankings. If someone has access to the highest-ranked colleges in the world, why would they leave that and come to India? Secondly, I think most of the time our curriculum is very clearly laid out and can be very rigorous,” said Mrinalini Batra, who runs international educational consultancy Educational Exchange.
Practical concerns such as the transfer of academic credits to local universities and the inability of many colleges to provide on-campus housing for foreign students could also contribute to factors, Batra added.
“We still face a long lag post-pandemic,” said Raj Ichambadi, president of the Illinois Institute of Technology. “Study abroad programs to Asia have taken much longer to recover than those in Europe due to extended travel restrictions. Because student word-of-mouth is a critical driver of these programs, this multi-year disruption resulted in a severe break in India’s enrollment pipeline.”
“Historically, India’s appeal has centered on language immersion, cultural agility, and the liberal arts. However, as higher education in the United States is increasingly driven by technology majors and direct career outcomes, India must position itself to offer competitive, high-value opportunities in cutting-edge technology, including artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and other emerging fields,” he added.
On the other hand, the flow of Indian students to the United States has continued to grow. In the 2023-2024 academic year, India overtook China as the largest source of international students in the United States, with 331,602 students. That number rose 9.5% in 2024-25 to 363,019, even as the number of Chinese students in America declined.
