Sentence 1 sounds good to me. "Between 2000 and 2010, there is a slight rise from 2 million to 3 million college students studying science in China" if you are looking at a graph of the data, then you can say this. This would mean that you are looking at the graph in present tense and stating that there is a difference. if you are talking about the past, then you will need to change it to: "Between 2000 and 2010, there was a slight rise...." or "Between 2000 and 2010, the number of students studying science in China rose from 2 to 3 million." Hope this helps.

Thank you.

Between 2000 and 2010, there WAS a slight rise, from 2 million to 3 million college students studying science in China. *"was" instead if "is" because you are talking about the past not the present. or I would say: Between 2000 and 2010, the number of college students studying science in China increased from 2 million to 3 million students.