US colleges and universities are seeing more international students enroll following a sharp decline during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A new survey, released from the Institute of International Education and the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, found first-time international student enrollment was up by 80 percent last year compared to the year before.

During the last academic year, 948,519 international students from more than 200 countries studied at a US college or university, a 4 percent increase compared to the previous school year, according to the "Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange."

China and India represented the majority, at 52 percent, of all international students in the United States. Other countries sending students to US colleges, including Canada, Mexico and Nigeria, also returned to pre-pandemic levels. (UPI)