This article examines the changing enrollment patterns of international students from leading senders China and India to host destinations around the world. Using data from the past decade, we offer a divergent picture of the priorities of these students and the implications for policies and academic mobility.

The pace of international student mobility has begun to increase once again following the COVID-19 pandemic, and, according to UNESCO, will reach 10 million international students by the end of 2030. The largest sending countries, China and India, comprise more than a quarter of all international students worldwide, and forecasts continue to place these two at the forefront of academic exchange.

What can we learn about the past to inform patterns in the future? Since 2001, the Institute of International Education’s Project Atlas has collected comparable international educational mobility data from over 30 partners, mapping the global flows of students. Throughout this time, China has been the leading sender of international students.

In 2024, India became the top sender of international students. While this trend was anticipated, given the unprecedented rise of Indian students pursuing graduate studies and the COVID-19 ramifications on students from China, it ushers in a possible new phase of international student mobility.

One important consideration is that the profile of Chinese and Indian students differs considerably, influencing everything from where to what these students want to study. By studying historical trends of global enrollment in these two countries, stakeholders can better prepare for the student profile of the next decade.

Chinese Student Enrollment Trends

The number of Chinese students studying abroad has been in decline for several years already, and has been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. At its peak in 2020, 11 Project Atlas partners reported that nearly one million Chinese students were studying in their countries. In 2024, 16 Project Atlas partners reported that this total had decreased to just under 847,000 students. The rate of decline occurred across top host destinations, most notably in the United States and Canada.

One-third (277,398) of these students studied in the United States. This represented a 4 percent decline from the prior year and a drop of approximately 100,000 students from 2020. The United Kingdom and Australia were the second and third leading host destinations, with 154,260 students and 142,420 students, respectively.

In the United States, the slowdown in Chinese students began before the COVID-19 pandemic and has accelerated since. During the 2010s, a large growth in the number of Chinese students to the United States was attributed to undergraduate degree seekers, and the recent decrease has been among this demographic primarily. While numbers of Chinese graduate students have rebounded, the number of Chinese undergraduate students has been decreasing.

Given that the tertiary system in China has been developing its own capacity to support domestic and international students, alongside an overall shrinking demographic trend of tertiary-aged Chinese students, the number of undergraduate students from China who go abroad may not reach heights seen in the past. What remains to be seen is whether graduate student numbers will continue to grow and whether the combination could propel total Chinese student numbers upward again.

Indian Student Enrollment Trends

The increase in the number of Indian students seeking higher education abroad has been driven by mobility to three global hosts: Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Canada, the leading destination for students from India, hosted 384,965 students in 2024, a 33 percent increase from the prior year, and a 94 percent growth since 2020. Similarly, the United States hosted 332,217 Indian students at the tertiary level, 24 percent more than the preceding year, and the United Kingdom hosted 173,190 students, a 42 percent increase. Of the more than one million Indian students who studied abroad, 86 percent chose one of these three destinations.

India’s climb to the leading sending country of international students results from a rapid surge in the number of students who studied abroad between 2020 and 2024, nearly doubling in this short time frame. Students from India studied at all academic levels, with just under half enrolled at the undergraduate level and slightly more than half enrolled at the graduate level.

Compared to China, these proportions differed significantly across host countries. For example, in the United States and the United Kingdom, the majority (more than 80 percent) of Indian students enrolled at the graduate level, while in Canada, more than 90 percent of Indian students enrolled at the undergraduate level.

With an increasing tertiary population, there is room to recruit a greater number of international students from India. However, the preferences of students vary. Most Indian students who preferred to study abroad at undergraduate level went to Canada, where vocational and technical education degree programs are part of the undergraduate tuition model for international students, making them more accessible and affordable. This has also been bolstered by Canada’s immigration policies and pathways to employment.

Many graduate students going to the United Kingdom or the United States had completed their undergraduate studies in India before pursuing study abroad. This indicates that the population of students going to Canada differs from the population of students interested in studying in the United Kingdom or the United States.

Implications for Future India and China Student Flows

Although the COVID-19 pandemic affected all countries, responses to the pandemic and reengagement with student mobility have differed globally. In the Chinese context, students who have returned home are now filling roles at higher education institutions and contributing to expanding Chinese university capacity. An increasing number of Chinese universities are now highly ranked in global university rankings, offering Chinese families an opportunity to reconsider the need to go abroad. At the same time, China emerged slowly from the COVID-19 pandemic, and an economic downturn in the country has kept unemployment rates high among college graduates, particularly those with advanced degrees. This has resulted in Chinese students reassessing the value of an advanced degree and overseas options for study or work.

The growing youth population in India and limited higher education capacity, alongside increasing income levels of the middle class, are the primary factors leading to many Indian students crossing the border to pursue higher education. As Canada and other countries impose restrictions on international student mobility, it is valid to question whether the same students who would have considered Canada for their undergraduate study, for example, could turn their sights to the United Kingdom or the United States. The results could benefit these two hosts, but the data also indicates that the profile differs. There is also the question of whether Chinese and Indian students may look to other destinations, perhaps regionally in Asia, to pursue their studies.

Student mobility trends emerging in China and India continue to reinforce the need for higher education institutions to focus their outreach and recruitment strategies on both while offering programs that complement the shifting dynamics of their student profiles.

Leah Mason is deputy director of research, evaluation, and learning at the Institute of International Education, United States. E-mail: [email protected].

Mirka Martel is head of research, evaluation, and learning at the Institute of International Education, United States. E-mail: [email protected].