China still top nation sending students to US

SHANGHAI -- China remained the overseas country with most students in US universities in 2016-2017 academic year, according to the US Consulate General Shanghai.

A total of 350,755 Chinese students were enrolled at US institutions of higher education in the academic year, up 6.8 percent, retaining China's top slot for eight years in a row, it said during a press conference Tuesday.

The report was published by the Institute of International Education, an independent American nonprofit organization in partnership with the US Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Chinese students made up 32.5 percent of all international students in the United States. Of them, 142,851 were undergraduates, a 5.3 percent increase. The number of Chinese graduate students increased by 4.1 percent.

China is the sixth most popular destination for US students studying abroad, with close to 12,000 in China during 2015-2016.

The institute also found 55.5 percent of Chinese students chose engineering, business and management, mathematics or computer science. Those who chose social sciences or humanities accounted for only 9.3 percent. In contrast, 17.1 percent of American students studying abroad chose social sciences as their field of study.