BAGUIO CITY - Many students around the world consider an American education as the way to a better job back home. This doesn’t seem to be the case with Filipinos.

Philippine nationals enrolled in US colleges and universities for the school year 2005-06 rose by 6.4% to 3,758 over the previous school year. But they are the fewest among Asians.

Only about 0.3 % of college students from the Philippines - or between 5,500 and 6,000 - study overseas.

About six out of 10 go to the United States, the rest study in Britain, Australia, Japan and Germany, according to the Institute of International Education (IIE) in its annual report “Open Doors 2006″.

Thailand, which has the biggest number of Southeast Asia, has more national studying in the US, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and even Vietnam have more students than there are Filipinos studying in the US.

Higher education is the fifth largest service sector earner in the United States, according to the US Department of Commerce.

Foreign students contribute about $13.5 billion to the US economy through their tuition and living expenses, including room and board, books and supplies, transportation, health insurance and support for accompanying family members.

There are several thousand campuses that are host to international students - 10 times as many as any other countries.

For the fifth consecutive year, the University of Southern California remained the campus with the largest international student enrollment, with 6,881 international students.

Columbia University moved up from fourth to second place with 5,575 international students. Also among the top five are perennial favorites Purdue University, New York University and the University of Texas at Austin.

This year marked the seventh year in a row that America has hosted more than half a million foreign students.

And for the first time, colleges and universities reported an 8% increase in new enrollments for 2005-06 - indicating that the number of foreign students is increasing.

Asia remains the largest source of foreign students, accounting for 58% of international enrollments.

Open Doors 2006 reports increases in the number of students from seven of the 10 leading places of origin, with particularly large increases from South Korea, Taiwan and Mexico.

India remains the largest sending country by a large margin, at 76,503. Mainland China remains in second place, with numbers at 62,582.

Students from Hong Kong, now the 12th leading place of origin, increased to 7,849. Notable increases of 25% each were seen in students from Nepal and Vietnam.

Most (63%) of all international students receive the majority of their funds from family and personal sources.

The most popular fields of study for international students in the US in 2005/06 were Business and Management, Engineering and Physical and Life Sciences.  These are followed closely by Social Sciences and Mathematics and Computer Sciences. (Internews&Features)