The US universities and colleges have experienced a 32 per cent increase in number of students from India since last year, as compared to nine per cent internationally, latest official figures have stated.

According to “SEVIS by the Numbers,” a quarterly report on international students studying in the US released by the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP), which is part of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, there has been a “32 per cent increase in students from India since 2014.”

Seventy six per cent of all international students are from Asia.

The top 10 countries of citizenship for international students included China, India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Mexico and Brazil.

India and Vietnam had the greatest percentage increase in students studying in the US at 31.9 and 25.9 per cent respectively, when compared to statistics extracted from SEVIS July 2014.

“Twenty four per cent of all F & M students studying at schools in the state of Texas are from India, followed by 17 per cent from China,” SEVP said.

China with about 300,000 has the maximum number of international students in the US, followed by India with nearly 150,000.

The University of Southern California, New York University, Columbia University, the University of Illinois and Purdue University ranked one through five, among US schools with the most international students.

There are currently 1.5 million international students in the US, who get F and M visa for studying in the country.

Among them, 405,314 F & M students are studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields in the US.

Eighty six per cent of international students studying STEM coursework were from Asia.

More international students studied engineering than any other STEM field of study, with 29 per cent of those engineering students coming from India, the report said.

As many as 81 per cent of the Indian students are in STEM field, the highest for any country, the report said.