The number of international students attending U.S. colleges and universities rose by 5 percent to a record high of 723,277 during the 2010/11 academic year, led by a sharp increase in the number of Chinese students, a report released on Monday showed.

    This is the fifth consecutive year to witness growth in the total number of international students in the United States, 32 percent more than it was a decade ago, according to the annual Open Doors report published by the Institute of International Education, in partnership with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

    Increased numbers of students from China, especially at the undergraduate level, largely account for the growth this past year, the report said, adding that Chinese students increased by 22 percent to nearly 158,000 in total and by 43 percent at the undergraduate level.

    This made China, whose students account for 22 percent of the total international students in the United States, the leading sending country of international students for the second year in a row.

    China is followed by India, which currently has 104,000 students in the United States that account for 14 percent of the total, and South Korea, which has 73,000 students that make up 10 percent of the total.

    Xinhua