The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Easy visa procedures for US-bound students likely

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 16, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Easy visa procedures for US-bound students likely

R. Ravikanth Reddy

Foreign students play a vital role in American graduate education in sciences

HYDERABAD: Indian students heading to USA for higher studies are likely to face less hurdles in obtaining visas if the US Government takes a serious view of the report published by its National Research Council (NRC) recently.

The report released a few days ago, says foreign students played a vital role in American graduate education in the sciences, but numerous U.S. policies were failing to help colleges enrol them in a big way. It recommended various steps including easy visa procedures, change of visa status and fellowships to attract the best talent that was heading to other countries in view of the strict visa regulations.

Largest group

Indian students form the largest group of foreign students in the US universities with more than 70,000 taking fresh admissions this year.

Till last year, China was sending more number of students than any other country.

The NRC, which is a part of the National Academies comprising the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering and Institute of Medicine indicated in its report that since the September 11 attacks and the subsequent tightening of U.S. visa regulations it was becoming more difficult for foreign students to get enrolment into American institutions.

The report also notes that this change has taken place at a time when many other countries were expanding their technological and educational capacities and creating more opportunities for participation by international students.

The report reminds that international students have advanced the US Sciences and engineering arenas and the number of patents, publications and Nobel prizes only indicate that. A substantial number of people in the Science and Engineering research were from other countries and their role has been increasing over the years.

For example, one third of US Nobel laureates are foreign-born and 59 per cent of post-doctorals in the US now are also foreign-born.

"If the human resource flow is reduced it would have a cumulative effect on hiring in the universities, industry and Government," the report said.

"If the US is to maintain overall leadership in Science and Engineering, visa and immigration policies should provide clear procedures. For this better coordination between the Departments of State (DOS) and Homeland Security (DHS) and research institutions was must," the report argued.

Suggestion

Another important suggestion was to make it easier for foreign graduate students to change their visa status once they are in the United States and their circumstances change.

Changing the Visa status is very difficult in the US as of now. Suggestions like creation of new non-immigrant visa categories for post doctoral students coming to US for formal education or for short-term research collaborations was also suggested apart from giving high priority to multiple-entry and multiple-year student visas.

The Universities too can chip in with fellowship programmes to attract the best talent and orientation programmes to help them adjust to life in the United States. It further added that Universities should collect more data about their foreign students to document their role in higher education and their impact once they obtain their degrees.

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