Washington Nov. 4 . An annual survey by the Institute of International Education shows that there has been a "significant" drop in student admissions in American campuses from countries such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt.

But the shortfall has been made-up by students coming to the United States from countries such as South Korea and India.

For the second year in a row, India is the leading country of origin for foreign students into the U.S., accounting for 13 per cent of the total foreign student population — 74,603 out of a total of 586,323.

The report has shown an overall drop of about 10 per cent in student population coming from West Asian countries.

The survey shows that in the last two years, the growth rate in enrolment of foreign students dropped from 6.4 per cent to 0.6 per cent, with the largest number of foreign students from India and China.

The foreign student population from other countries included South Korea, Hong Kong, Mexico, Kenya and Canada.

There was a significant drop in students coming from South East Asia with Thailand accounting for a 14 per cent drop followed by Malaysia and Indonesia.

The IIE president, Allan Goodman, has said that the data shows that the U.S. still remains the number one destination of foreign students in spite of individual "horror stories" of long visa lines and brusque consular officers.A recent online survey of the International Educational Professionals has shown that nearly 60 per cent of the respondents have cited the new visa application process for the decline in foreign student enrolment and another 21 per cent cited financial reasons as the primary difficulty.

But not many experts agree with the positive assessment of the IIE and see a decline in future enrolments which is bound to have an impact on the local economies. It is pointed out that the American economy takes in about $13 billion from foreign students by way of fees, room and board and other spending; and in some large states such as California, the estimate has been that more is earned from foreign students than out of popular games such as baseball and football combined.

The Open Doors survey of the IIE shows that enrolment from West Asian countries has dropped sharply — there is said to be a 10 per cent drop in the overall rate of countries in West Asia with Saudi Arabia, for instance, showing a sharp fall from 5579 students in American institutions in 2002 to 4175 this year.

While part of the reason has been attributed to a decline in the economy of the Kingdom, a compounding factor may have been the perception of a Saudi student being "unwelcome" in this country, it is said.

Non-profit groups that are involved in student exchanges are making the point that the policies of the U.S. Government have had the net effect of keeping the foreign students out — a worrisome trend that needs to be addressed now, it is argued.