(Image source from: icef.com)

The universities in the United States are becoming increasingly less attractive for international students, a study of 369 institutions found.

Amid tightening visa policies and a limited job market, it has found that fewer Indians applied for graduate programs in the 2018 cycle as overall applications fell too.

Indian applications have dropped for three consecutive years after seeing double-digit growth rates between 2012 and 2015. China has remained more firm, though its tense ties with the U.S. have impacted application numbers.

Most regions saw declines with only Latin American showing a modest increase in applications. But China and India remained at the top for most applicants, making up 44 percent and 27 percent of all international graduate applicants. Asia accounted for 81 percent of all international student applications, followed by Europe and the Middle East at a mere 5 percent each.

The declines in applications for popular fields like engineering and business is probably due to visa restrictions and scrutiny on the H-1B visa system.

Visa restrictions and scrutiny on the H-1B visa system have probably led to declines in applications for popular fields like business and engineering. Despite the drop, 25 percent of all applications were for engineering programs. Computer sciences and Mathematics too received 25 percent of total applications, followed by business at 14 percent.

-Sowmya Sangam