The Hindu Business Line : India holds promise for US varsities

While there are no ready answers to this, what is certain is that India and China feature prominently in the global plans of most universities. No wonder that it has been a season of visits by the presidents of top universities in the US to India.

"India is a big country and it has developed at a fast pace over the past few years. In fact, the general view is that the country holds great potential for more rapid growth in the coming years," said Dr Jared L. Cohon, President of Pittsburgh-based (Pennsylvania) Carnegie Mellon University.

On his maiden visit to the country recently, he met up with alumni in an effort to get a better idea of what the university should do to establish itself in the country. "We are still debating on whether we should be setting up a base here. We could also offer specific programmes of study in the country. Another option would be to take on an advisorial role to an institution," said Dr Cohon.

The latter will be similar to the partnership the university has with Singapore Management University, where its faculty have drawn up a course of study for the School of Information Sciences. The university also has a campus in California and Qatar.

With 400 of Carnegie Mellon's 9,000 international students coming from India, it makes them the university's largest overseas student group. And, despite the buzz about visa problems, these numbers mirror the trend for universities across the US.

Dr Cohon, who is on the US Homeland Security Advisory Council, believes that while the number of international applicants to US universities had fallen, the perception of the situation was worse than what it was on the ground.

The problem of visas was "limited" at Carnegie Mellon. While all the international students who were offered admission to undergraduate courses received visas, just 10 out of 4,000 applicants offered admission to graduate programmes faced visa issues at the university.

According to `Open Doors: Report on International Educational Exchange', published by the US-based Institute of International Education, in the academic year 2003-04, there were 79,736 students from India, accounting for 13.9 per cent of foreign students in the US. And, for the third year in a row, India was the top country of origin for students in the US.

The report said international students contributed approximately $12 billion to the US economy through their expenditure on tuition and living expenses.

The study said the number of international students enrolled in higher education institutions in the US decreased by 2.4 per cent in 2003-04 to 5,72,509. This drop represents the first absolute decline in foreign enrolments since 1971-72.

The fall in 2003-04 follows a minimal increase (0.6 per cent) in 2002-03, which was preceded by five years of steady growth.