Indian student enrolment in United States drops by 6.9 pc

More than 3.5 lakh Indian students are pursuing various educational programmes, ranging from primary schooling to university courses in the US as of February 2026, which is a decline of around 6.9 per cent from the corresponding figure in the previous year, Parliament was informed on Thursday.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) was asked whether Indian student enrolments in the US have dropped, and to what extent “scarce visa slots” and a “high percentage of visa rejections” are contributing to it.

In a written reply to the query, Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh shared with



the Rajya Sabha some data released by the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) Mapping Tool of the US Department of Homeland Security.

According to the data, the total number of Indian students pursuing various educational programmes (primary, secondary, other vocational, high school, language training, flight school, associate, bachelor’s, master’s, doctorate and others) in the United States of America stood at 378,787 in February 2025 and 352,644 in February 2026, he said.

The figure indicates a decline of around 6.9 per cent in overall student enrolments in US academic institutions, he added.