The United States remains the most popular (36) for foreign students, but its share of the (37) international education market has fallen to 22 percent from 25 percent in four years. The (38) in U.S. market share fell as the number of foreign university students (39) around the world grew 41 percent to 2.7 million between 2000 and 2004, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said. The organization said the " (40) drop" in the proportion of foreign students going to the United States reflected its passive approach to (41) them as well as the (42) rules for entering the country after the September 11, 2001 (43) . In its annual Education at a Glance survey, the organization said the declining U.S. share (44) in New Zealand, France and South Africa. Several of the organization’s 30 member nations— (45) —have recently softened their immigration policies to encourage the temporary or permanent residence of international students. The United States, together with the United Kingdom, Germany and France (46) .