Increase in Foreign Undergraduates in the US 2009/10 vs 2007/08. (June 1, 2011)

The graphic published in The Chronicle of Higher Education shows a remarkable increase in Chinese undergraduates attending American universities between the 2007/08 and 2009/10 academic years as well as a 12.8% rise overall of foreign undergraduates.

Certainly it suggests that if Australian universities rely on income derived from enrollments of foreign students to be maintained at current levels, let alone increase, they will surely be faced with undesirable consequences.

Note added June 2, 2011: An astute reader has pointed out that the graphic on the right is misleading. While the ratio of the student numbers is 1.57 and the ratio of the diameters of the circles is ~1.53 the ratio of the areas of the circles is 2.33 thereby giving a misleading impression of the size of the increase.