More than 70,000 South Koreans studied at U.S. universities and colleges last year, representing the third-largest number of international students there, according to a formal report issued Monday.

The number of foreign students in U.S. higher education reached a record high of 819,644 in the 2012/13 academic year, said the Institute of International Education and the U.S. Department of State’s annual “Open Doors” report.

That’s a record high, up 7 percent from a year earlier and 40 percent from more than a decade ago.

International students make up less than 4 percent of all students.

The highest numbers were from China, India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Canada.

“Students from the top three places of origin ― China, India and South Korea ― now represent 49 percent of the total number of international students in the United States, with the number from China increasing, and the numbers from India and South Korea declining,” it said.

South Korean students totaled 70,627, down 2.3 percent from the 2011/12 academic year.

Peggy Blumenthal, senior counselor at the IIE, said the decline seems to be attributable to improvements in South Korea’s higher education system and the rise of Chinese universities as an alternative.

About 235,000 of the international students were from China, a 21 percent increase. A burgeoning middle class in China was cited as a factor. About one-third studied business and management once they arrived, the report said.

Meanwhile, U.S. students studying abroad jumped by 3 percent to an all-time high of 283,332, marking a 3 percent increase from a year earlier.

In the past 20 years, the number of U.S. students studying abroad has tripled. But less than 10 percent of American students study abroad during their college years. The United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, France and China were the top destinations.

The U.S. government interpreted the increase in student exchanges to and from the U.S. positively.

“International education promotes the relationship building and knowledge exchange between people and communities in the United States and around the world that are necessary to solve global challenges,” Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Evan Ryan said.

(From news reports)