India comes 2nd after China with 166,000 students in the US: USIEF official

China has the highest number of students going to the United States for higher studies every year while India is at the second place with almost half the count, an USIEF senior official said here on Sunday.

"As per the statistics, India is number 2 behind China. Going by the last academic year's figure, there are around 1,66,000 Indian students studying in the US while China has 3,20,000 students approximately," US Consulate General, Public Affairs Officers and Director of the American Centre, Jamie Dragon said.

"China surpassed India about six years ago and the gap (between the number of Indian and Chinese students going to the US) is increasing," Dragon added.

Asked about the number of students from Kolkata going to the US every year, the US official said that the city lagged way behind other metros with New Delhi and Mumbai taking the lead.

"I do not have the actual statistics on Kolkata students. But just looking at the size of the visa offices in the country, Kolkata has one of the smaller offices. My sense is that the domain in Kolkata is not that high compared to other metros.

He, however, said that the figure on the number of students going to the US during this academic session is expected to be released soon.

On whether there was a slump in the number of international students going to the US for higher studies after Donald Trump took over as the US President, Dragon said that the annual statistics are yet to come out.

Twenty-one universities from the US interacted with over 100 local students and their guardians today at the USIEF-EducationUSA University Fair 2017, hosted by the US-India Educational Foundation (USIEF) here.

The fair, inaugurated by Dragon, provided students the opportunity to learn about the most current and authentic information about the accredited American Universities.

An annual event, the fair was held in New Delhi before Kolkata. It will next go to Hyderabad followed by one-day sessions in Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, and Ahmedabad.