New York University remains one of the top American universities in both attracting international students and in students who study abroad, according to a new study by the Institute of International Education (IIE).

NYU Among Leading Universities in Attracting International Students and Students Who Study Abroad

New York University remains one of the top American universities in both attracting international students and in students who study abroad, according to a new study by the Institute of International Education (IIE).

NYU was the top institution in students who study overseas, with 3,524 during the 2008-09 academic year—up from 3,395 the previous year, when it was also the leading institution in sending students to study abroad. It is followed by Michigan State University (2,610), UCLA (2,371), the University of Washington (2,349), and the University of Southern California (2,348).

In 2009-10, the IIE report found, NYU attracted the third-highest number of students from abroad (7,287), behind the University of Southern California (7,987) and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (7,287) and ahead of Purdue University (6,903) and Columbia University (6,833).

The national results appear in Open Doors 2010, the annual report on international education published by IIE with funding from the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Additional information may be obtained at www.iie.org/opendoors. The report relies on data from 2008-09 academic year—rather than the 2009-10 academic year—in calculating U.S. students who study abroad because these numbers are reported only after students receive credit for their academic programs—typically after they return from their study-abroad experience. By contrast, international students who come to the U.S. are tallied once they are enrolled at American colleges and universities, and these figures are available earlier.

China is the leading place of origin for international students in the United States, with 127,628 in 2009-10, followed by India (104,897), South Korea (72,153), Canada (28,145), Taiwan (26,685), Japan (24,842), Saudi Arabia (15,810), Mexico (13,450), Vietnam (13,112), and Turkey (12,397). International students contribute nearly $20 billion to the U.S. economy, through their expenditures on tuition and living expenses, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Open Doors 2010 found the leading fields of study of Americans studying abroad are the social sciences (21 percent of those studying abroad), business and management (20 percent), humanities (12 percent), fine or applied arts (7 percent), physical/life sciences (7 percent), foreign languages (6 percent), health sciences (5 percent), education (4 percent), engineering (3 percent), math/computer science (2 percent), and agriculture (1 percent).

Since 2006, NYU has opened new study-abroad sites or established partnerships with institutions in Shanghai, Singapore, and Tel Aviv and, in August 2010, opened a new campus in Abu Dhabi.

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