Hyderabad: A high-ranking US official has made an encouraging case for Hyderabad students to study in the country.
Caroline Casagrande is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Academic Programmes in the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
The purpose of her day-long visit to the city was to ensure that students understand the process of using a US Education Centre; that they know that they are welcome in the US; and that they feel encouraged to apply for a school in that country.
According to Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange, almost 2,00,000 Indian students went to the US in 2017-18, contributing $7.5 billion to the US economy.
Though the number of Indian students in institutions of higher education in the US grew by 5.4 per cent in 2017-18, it remained at a five-year low, mostly owing to restrictive immigration noises from Washington DC, according to the data.
Ms Casagrande, however, said the figures were actually encouraging.
She explained, “We have increased our student enrolment. When you include our Optional Practical Training students, the figures have increased by more than five per cent. So, we look at it as a success story.”
Ms Casagrande added that she would like to see the figures grow in the coming years.
She said, “We know that students from Hyderabad do very, very well in our universities. We know the city is an incredibly growing epicentre of business, innovation and technology, and so deepening our relationship with the city is important.”
As the two largest democracies in the world, what was unique to both countries is their “real, ingrained spirit of entrepreneurship” and similar values, she added.
“The spirit at university-level comes from allowing academic freedom, freedom of thought and building alliances, which are not available at every university. We think of international students not only as a wonderful way to share our values and develop relationships with future scientists, business and political leaders. We think that’s an enriching thing in American education.”
“It’s really a two-way street of benefit,” she said.
She stressed the importance of US education centres such as the American Centre at St Francis College for Women in Begumpet. “Our US education centres are free and while an agent or recruiter may work for one particular university, our centres are legally obligated to promote 4700 universities in the US.”
“What it means, is that they will find the right fit for each student from among all universities.”
The visit comes a month after 146 students were detained by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities for alleged immigration fraud.
Around 140 of them are from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. It was however understood that her visit was not linked to the incident, having been planned months in advance. Her advice to students was “to do research and visit our amazing free advisory US education centres, which will help get them a spot in the university best suited for them.”
