After 10 years of double-digit growth in numbers of Chinese students applying, and being admitted to U.S. graduate engineering and science programs, the wheels may have left the cart.

Chinese applications fell three percent in 2013 and one percent in 2014, according to a report issued this week by the Council of Graduate Studies, CGS, representing America's advanced-degree program-awarding institutions.

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Admissions of Chinese students went flat, too. By contrast, Indian students applied for admission in record numbers with application shooting up nearly 20 percent while admissions offer increased 25 percent. Admissions offer doubled to Brazilian students.

Overall, graduate admissions extended to foreign students increased nine percent. China, however, remained the largest provider of students in the international pool at U.S. universities. Chinese students accounted for more than one of three in 819,000 international grad students at U.S. programs.

American college officials until recently were concerned, China's massive commitment to higher education might mean Chinese students overwhelming U.S. engineering and science graduate programs.

"2014 CGS International Graduate Admissions Survey" took the pulse of 285 leading U.S. universities representing 85 percent of the nation's largest graduate degree programs. The survey found 300,000 Chinese students applied to U.S. graduate schools this year. That represented a one percent decrease over 2013.

Fewer students applying also meant fewer admissions offered. Graduate programs offered Chinese students about the same number of admissions in 2014 -- 72,000 -- as they did in 2013 and 2012.

Jeff Allum, CGS research director and policy analyst, put the report together. He said he was convinced these trends were a permanent indication of future applications and admissions, not a fluke.

The 300,000 student question then, is why are numbers of Chinese graduate students at U.S. grad schools falling?

Many suspect one major reason may be the increased quality of Chinese graduate programs. The government has poured massive amounts of money into education and it seems to be paying off in quality.

Chinese schools have increased science spending and bought advanced equipment leading to more research and more post-graduate opportunity, noted Robert Bernhard, Notre Dame University vice president for research in comments to Science Magazine.

Wang Jing, of the China Ministry of Education International Division, suggested that many Chinese students now were coming to the U.S. for undergraduate college or even high school and simply weren't being counted as international students in surveys.

TagsChinese students, U.S. graduate schools, China education, Indian education, science education