The number of Chinese mainland students enrolling in American universities appears to have rebounded slightly this year, According to Allan E Goodman, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of International Education.

The number of Chinese mainland students enrolled in US during the 2004-2005 academic year reached 62,523, an increase of 1% over the same period of last year and the number of visiting scholars going to the US mounted to 17,000, or 15% up, said Allan Goodman.

The total number of international students enrolled in the US higher education institutions are 565,000, 1% down compared to the previous year.

Experts say that difficulty in obtaining visa, rising US tuition costs, vigorous recruitment activities by other English-speaking nations, and perceptions abroad that it is more difficult for international students to come to the United States are the main reasons for the decline.

India continues to remain the top source of foreign students studying in the US with the number standing at 80,000. Following India and Chinese mainland are South Korea, Japan, Canada, and China's Taiwan.

Number of Students from Middle East continues to decrease and those from Saudi Arabia dropped by one quarter.

MBA, engineering, mathematics and computer science are top four majors selected by international students.

Statistics from Institute of International Education shows that US made 13.3 billion US dollars from its international students last year. Two thirds of students rely on families in tuition fees.

US registered more than 89,600 international visiting scholars during the 2004-2005 academic year, of which, China takes up 20%, followed by South Korea, India, Japan, Germany.

By People's Daily Online