By 2030, projections indicate that the number of Indian students coming to the United States will increase fivefold, resulting in over a million enrollments annually. A recent trend highlights a decline in the college-age population, which leads to the possibility of an ‘enrollment cliff.’ The US could potentially encounter this enrollment cliff as early as 2025, prompting a projected 15-20% increase in university enrollments by 2026.
The statistical data for 2023 indicates that 268,923 Indian students opted to pursue higher education in the US. According to the National Center for Education Statistics of the US Department of Education, undergraduate enrollment in the US peaked in the 2010–11 academic year at 18.1 million. However, the enrollment rate sharply declined after that.
As of the fall of 2022, undergraduate enrollment stood just below 15.1 million, as reported by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Notably, around 1.23 million American undergraduates have disappeared from college and university campuses since 2020, representing a 4% decline. The diminishing number of American high school graduates exacerbates this decline.
In response to these challenges, American universities have actively and aggressively pursued international student admissions over the past 3 to 5 years. In 2023, for the third consecutive year, a record number of Indian students chose the US for higher education.
During the 2022–23 academic year, there was a significant 35% increase in the number of international students from India enrolling in US institutions. From 199,182 in 2022 to 268,923 during the academic year 2022–23, the number of Indian students studying in the United States has increased. Indian students now constitute more than a quarter of the total of one million foreign students studying in the US.
