\n<\/p>\n
Despite federal attitudes and policies toward international students, demand to study in the U.S. remains high.<\/p>\n
Photo illustration by Justin Morrison\/Inside Higher Ed | Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n Advocates for international students are raising alarms that federal actions are limiting foreign-born learners\u2019 ability to study in the U.S. But researchers say the trend isn\u2019t an indication of international student interest or demand to study in the U.S. <\/p>\n A late July survey of 300 foreign-born students found 91\u00a0percent plan to study in the U.S., despite funding cuts and internal instability in the U.S. The reputation of U.S. institutions also has yet to take a hit, with 99\u00a0percent of respondents indicating they still trust the academic quality of U.S. institutions. <\/p>\n That\u2019s not to say students are unaware of or undeterred by changes at the federal level. Fifty-five\u00a0percent of survey respondents indicated some level of concern about pursuing their degree in the U.S., and 50\u00a0percent said they\u2019re less excited about the opportunity now than they were previously. The top reason their sentiment has changed is international tensions or politics (54\u00a0percent), followed by worries about political instability in the U.S. (45\u00a0percent). <\/p>\n Brian Meagher, vice president at Shorelight, a higher education consulting group focused on international students, said at an Aug.\u00a012 media roundtable that even students caught in the visa backlog haven\u2019t shifted their gaze to other countries yet. Instead, they are deferring to the spring semester. May data from the U.S. Department of State shows 19,000 fewer students received a F-1 or J-1 visa that month compared to May 2024, which experts say is the first sign that a fraction of expected students will be coming to campus this fall. <\/p>\n \u201cMost of them want [to study in] the U.S.\u2014they\u2019re not changing their minds to the U.K. or Canada or Australia,\u201d Meagher said. \u201cWe do think there will be a longer-term impact on switching to other country destinations as a result of this.\u201d <\/p>\n Others are taking classes online at their host institution or enrolling in a satellite campus elsewhere in the world for their first term, but those are less popular options, Meagher said. <\/p>\n \u201cIn talking with prospective students, I\u2019d say the belief is that this is a temporary changeover at an unfortunate time that may result in missing a fall semester,\u201d Shorelight CEO Tom Dretler said during the roundtable. <\/p>\n While international students see the changes as a short-term setback, some market predictions forecast significant changes to U.S. higher education enrollment and revenue. At least the lack of visas could impact future applications to U.S. colleges, Dretler said.<\/p>\n Research by Holon IQ, a global intelligence agency, points to the U.S. as a top destination country for international students for decades, but since 2016\u2014roughly the start of the first Trump administration\u2014the country lost 10\u00a0percentage points of its share of international students. <\/p>\n Starting in 2016, \u201cthe U.S. became perceived by some as less welcoming or safe, did not recruit international students as energetically, and denied a substantial fraction of student visa applications, while governments and university sectors in the other countries acted in concert to grow international student numbers,\u201d according to an August report from Holon\u00a0IQ.<\/p>\n Modeling by Holon IQ finds that a variety of actions by the federal government, including visa policy changes, a crackdown on universities and new tariffs could create barriers to students in the U.S. as well as a climate of uncertainty for prospective students. <\/p>\n The agency predicts the most likely trajectory is there will be a short-term decline in U.S. international enrollment, with 1.12\u00a0million students in 2030, unchanged from 2023 levels. But possible scenarios range from an increase in students of 8.3\u00a0percent to a drop of 7.9\u00a0percent by 2030. <\/p>\n \u201cI think what\u2019s happening in the U.S. is a point in time as to whether the U.S. will continue to lead and for how long it will continue to remain the global leader for international student mobility and a desired study destination,\u201d said Patrick Brothers, co-CEO of Holon IQ Global Impact Intelligence, during the media roundtable. <\/p>\n Experts warn that a lack of students on campus could mean billions in lost tuition revenue for years to come. <\/p>\n NAFSA, the association of international educators, reported if the number of new international student enrollment declined between 30\u00a0and 40\u00a0percent, it would result in a 15\u00a0percent drop in overall international enrollment and result in a loss of $7\u00a0billion in revenue. <\/p>\n June data from Shorelight found even a 20\u00a0percent decline would result in a $1.7\u00a0billion annual loss in tuition revenue, or $5\u00a0billion over four years. <\/p>\n \u201cWe think it\u2019s going to be something that is negative for the U.S. economy, negative from a jobs perspective and also very hurtful to colleges and universities, but not always the one that people think,\u201d Dretler said. Top universities will be able to weather the financial hit, pulling students off their waiting lists, but regional and community colleges will experience greater losses, which could increase tuition rates for middle-class families. <\/p>\n States with high international student enrollment would be hit hardest by the changes. Among the top states for international students\u2014California, New York and Texas\u2014Shorelight anticipates a total loss of $566.6\u00a0million and NAFSA projects a loss of $2.39\u00a0billion, based on their respective data models. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Despite federal attitudes and policies toward international students, demand to study in the U.S. remains high. Photo illustration by Justin Morrison\/Inside Higher Ed | Getty Images Advocates for international students are raising alarms that federal actions are limiting foreign-born learners\u2019 ability to study in the U.S. But researchers say the trend isn\u2019t an indication of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[522,949,531,1157,393],"class_list":{"0":"post-16466","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-demand","9":"tag-high","10":"tag-international","11":"tag-remains","12":"tag-student"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Long-Term Challenges Expected <\/h2>\n
Paying the Price <\/h2>\n