Justin USA: Everybody wants to go to American colleges and universities

Justin USA: Everybody wants to go to American colleges and universities

I had added a post about the Robert Gates interview, and he said that everybody wants to go to study in the United States, "Even those who hate us the most wear American college sweatshirts, and want to go to American colleges and universities." To a great extent, I agree with him. But the United Kingdom is also a fierce competitor, both for China and India. Last time, I'd mentioned China, just now I found the relevant figure from The Times of India:

More and more Indian students are preferring the UK for higher education, and many of them are from South India. The

British Council on Tuesday said 11,126 student visas were issued in September from the southern states, marking a 63% increase over 2007.

A seminar on student visas was held at British Council library, Kasturba Road. It aimed to assist those who have secured admission for the January/February 2009 intake, and highlighted requirements for visa applications. The minimum qualification for students is to clear the IELTS examination.

Around 44% of UK student visas issued from the country are from the four southern states. "The number of student visas issued from South India in September 2007 was 6,846. The number has shot up by almost 5,000 this year. Almost 31,000 Indians are studying in the UK," L Dhanasekaran, head, Education UK (South India), said.

Preferred courses include MBA, IT, engineering, biotechnology, microbiology, pharmacy, physiotherapy, social science, law and journalism. A 20% increase is expected in the number of Indians going to the UK in 2009.

Traditionally, students prefer foreign universities for post-graduate programmes because the one-year course entails lesser expense in terms of fees and cost of living. A new law in the UK allows international students to work for up to two years after their education.