The number of overseas graduate students taking courses in the United States has increased after three years of decline, following the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Council of Graduate Schools announced a modest one percent rise from 2005 to 2006 in the number of foreign graduates taking U.S .degree programs. New students from India increased by more than 30 percent, while the number of Chinese students grew by 20 percent. The two countries already send the most students to the United States, the council said. The number of students enrolling from the Middle East also increased one percent, the report found, with engineering and business degrees leading the overall growth. These findings confirm that there has been a recovery in international graduate student flows to the U.S. and I am optimistic that this encouraging trend will continue, council president Debra Stewart said in a statement. The increases reflect positively on both U.S. government policy changes and the outreach efforts of graduate schools themselves, she added. The United States changed visa requirements for students following the 2001, making it harder to get a visa and prompting many students to look elsewhere for degree programs. But the declining number of visiting students encouraged the government to introduce changes to visa requirements aimed at making the process easier. Although the report identified growth in the sector, author Kenneth Redd warned that although the United States had made efforts to recover, other countries had also been busily investing in attracting foreign students. He said that the U.S. share of total international students fell from 25 percent in 2000 to 22 percent in 2004. The Council of Graduate Schools represents some 475 institutions in the United States and Canada.
