CHINA: Chinese students 'drive US university market'

Along with the increasingly broad educational exchanges between China and the United States in the last 30 years, Chinese students have become a powerful 'engine' for the US higher education market, reports People's Daily Online.

China sent its first batch of 50 government-sponsored students to the United States in 1978. In 2009, there were about 100,000 Chinese students at US universities and colleges. Students from China have started studying in the United States at a younger age, and their selection of majors has become wider.

Hundreds of thousands of international students have not only become the United States' potential talent bank, but also provided the country with nearly US$18 billion in tuition fees each year. According to statistics from the US-based Institute of International Education, there were over 670,000 foreign students in American higher education institutions in 2008-09.
Full report on the People's Daily site