Offers to prospective international students by US graduate schools have fallen by 3% since last year, the first decline since 2004, according to a report by the Council of Graduate Schools in Washington DC.

More than half of the roughly 250 institutions that responded to the council's survey reported offering fewer places to international students. The countries most affected were India and South Korea, which fell by 16% each. China bucked the trend with a rise of 13%.

Nathan Bell, the council's director of research and policy analysis, attributes the declines to a reduction in recruiting efforts abroad because of the recession.