The number of international students entering US colleges and universities has fallen for the second year in a row, a nonprofit group said yesterday, amid efforts by the administration of US President Donald Trump to tighten restrictions on foreigners studying in the US.
New enrollments for the 2017-2018 school year slumped 6.6 percent compared with the previous year, according to an annual survey released by the Institute of International Education.
That follows a 3.3 percent decline in new international students tallied in the 2016-2017 academic year.
Several factors are driving the decrease.
Visa and immigration policy changes by the Trump administration have deterred some international students from enrolling, college administrators and immigration analysts said.
A strong US dollar has made US college tuition relatively more expensive — Canadian and European universities are competing fiercely for the same students — and headlines about mass shootings also might have deterred some students, institute president Allan Goodman said.
“Everything matters from safety, to cost, to perhaps perceptions of visa policy,” Goodman said. “We’re not hearing that students feel they can’t come here. We’re hearing that they have choices. We’re hearing that there’s competition from other countries.”
International students have become an important funding source for US colleges as traditional revenue sources, such as state funding, come under pressure.
Most undergraduate foreign students do not qualify for need-based financial aid, and must pay close to full tuition and fees to attend US schools.
Similar to previous years, the largest numbers of students came from China, India and South Korea, which together made up 56.1 percent of all international students.
The institute did not track new international student numbers before the 2004-2005 school year, but Goodman said the latest declines in enrollments were comparable to the period after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The annual survey of foreign-student enrollment is funded by the US Department of State.
Some immigration policy experts and college administrators attributed the decline to the Trump administration’s drive to restrict immigration, and an overall sense of a US political climate that is hostile to immigrants and foreigners.
“It is not a welcoming environment,” said Doug Rand, a former White House official working on immigration issues during the administration of former US president Barack Obama.
He said that Trump has moved to restrict the issuance of skilled-worker visas and permanent residency, which many incoming students may apply for in the future.
“It’s an act of willful ignorance to suggest that our immigration policies aren’t having a direct impact on foreign student enrollment,” Rand said.
Caroline Casagrande, a department official, said the “flattening” in international student enrollments began with the 2015-2016 year, prior to the start of the Trump administration.
That year, new enrollments still increased by 2.4 percent compared with the prior year.
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