A staggering number of 13,563 Bangladeshi students studied in the United States during the 2022–23 academic year, a 28 percent increase over the previous year (2021-2022).
The number of Bangladeshi students studying in the US is now at an all-time high, and Bangladesh ranks 13th worldwide in terms of international students heading to the United States.
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This was revealed during an iftar reception at the EMK Center in the capital’s Gulshan on Sunday.
However, a majority of general students and guardians have a common perception that students from Bangla mediums and HSC qualifiers have to hurdle through a rigorous process to get acceptance into US institutions, eventually leading them to pursue postgraduate opportunities rather than pursuing their undergraduate studies in the US.
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“I also had that perception until I applied for my undergraduate programmeme in the US,” Sazia Kamal, who completed her HSC in 2022 from Rajuk Uttara Model College and is going to the University of Cincinnati’s College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) BS programme in Biochemistry, told UNB.
Bangladeshi students have the option to pursue their undergraduate degrees in the United States through some easy and specific processes, without any difficulties. However, parents and other general students, mostly those from the Bengali medium, are generally not aware of this option.
EdUSA (Education USA), the US government’s only official source of information on higher education, is actively addressing this issue, working closely with high school counsellors and assisting qualified students to achieve their goal of higher education in the United States. This includes providing guidance on the visa process and reviewing their applications.
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“The entirety of the online undergrad application process is very easy, and anyone can apply to their selected institutions based on their preference of the majors with their Bangladeshi higher secondary results and the IELTS scores,” Sazia told UNB. She is a recipient of the International Outreach Award, the primary scholarship for international undergraduate students from the university.
The information was echoed by another successful applicant, Prottoy Roy, who completed his A Level from the SFX Greenherald International School. “I applied for the undergraduate programme in molecular biology at Brown University, and resources from EduUSA and the EMK Center helped me in the process.”
Rookshana Begum and Mohammad Shahnewaz, who joined the event on Sunday from Chattogram with their daughter Afra Nawar from the Presidency International School, said the high demand for a US degree is due to the exceptional quality of the US education system and the value placed on an American degree around the world, and this has been the motivation for them to send their daughter to the University of California (UCLA),”
Afra completed her A Level in 2023 and received a full scholarship to pursue her undergraduate degree in psychobiology at UCLA.
The Iftar and dinner reception on Sunday hosted 30 students who recently obtained the opportunity to pursue their undergraduate dreams in the United States this year. Students and parents from 16 institutions in Dhaka and Chattogram joined the reception, with four being Bangla medium and 12 being English medium institutions.
Sharlina Hussain-Morgan, Public Engagement Director at the US Embassy in Bangladesh, and Stephen F Ibelli, Public Diplomacy Counsellor of the US Embassy, spoke at the event.