The US has shown greater pliability recently in sharing strategic concerns with India. But that does not apply to the field of knowledge. The craze for British University education in the past has in recent years been outpaced by growing interest among Indians in studies in the US. But the trend has now been stemmed. Unfair barriers have been raised against the entry of Indian students. The latest Open Doors survey by the Institute of International Education shows that the percentage of increase in fresh enrolments by Indians halved in 2016-17 to 12.3% from almost 25% in the previous year. Indians constitute the second largest community of foreign students in the US in per capita terms. But they have now descended to the bottom. China has doubled the number of students in the US and South Korea comes third. There is evidence to prove that US universities are pursuing a policy of racial balancing and campus diversity at the expense of Indian and other Asian students. Indian students require to have more SAT points for admission to Harvard University, the most desired destination, than Whites, Hispanics and Blacks. That means there is need for a higher proficiency requirement for Indians to get admission to Harvard University. The command of English that Indians have is not considered an advantage. No importance is attached to the fact that Indians contribute 17% of the total earnings from overseas students at US universities. In fact, they are willing to contribute even a higher percentage.
The bias against Indian students is difficult to understand. US universities have on their faculty such eminent teachers as Jagdish Bhagwati, Pranab Bardhan and Raghuram Rajan. It had Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen teaching at Harvard and Berkeley. Indian techs are highly rated in Silicon Valley and in other parts of the US. India’s liberalisation in 1991 brought it closer to the US economy and the Indo-US nuclear energy deal has further strengthened ties. One wonders if the restriction on the admission of Indian students to US universities is due to the fear of their putting pressure on indigenous employment. But that will be a disaster for globalisation of knowledge.
