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More international students are attending U.S. colleges and universities than ever before, with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign maintaining its spot as the top public school destination in the country.

A record 886,052 international students attended U.S. institutions in the 2013-14 academic year, an 8 percent increase from the prior year, driven again by students from China, according to the annual “Open Doors” report from the Institute of International Education.

At the U. of I. this fall, about 1 in 10 freshmen is from China. U. of I. ranks No. 3 nationwide for the number of international students — 10,843 last school year — behind New York University and the University of Southern California, both of which are private schools. Four institutions enrolled more than 10,000 international students each — the first time a campus has broken that mark.

Overall, the number of international students in the U.S. has increased 72 percent since 2000, including five times as many Chinese students. The state of Illinois ranks No. 5 for international students, with 42,527 students, about 35 percent of whom come from China. In addition to U. of I., other top destinations in the state are the Illinois Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Chicago. At U. of I., about half of the international students are from China. That includes more than 650 freshmen, up from fewer than 20 freshmen from China in 2006.

“The growing number of students coming here from other nations and the expanding opportunities for our students to study abroad are great points of pride here at Illinois,” Chancellor Phyllis Wise said in a statement. “This diversity of perspectives, cultures and ideas creates an environment that better prepares all of our graduates to lead lives of impact in global society.” Read the whole article.

This article was originally published on The Chigago Tribune.