Welcome to Dale's Digest, a curated newsletter from Foreign Credentials Service of America (FCSA). Below are a collection of articles from reliable sources regarding news and trends in international enrollment.
Wait, now Trump wants more Chinese students? The president drew objections from nativists in the Republican coalition by suggesting on Monday that the country should admit 600,000 Chinese college students. Then he doubled down on the idea Tuesday by arguing the additional enrollment would help U.S. colleges stay in business. Trump’s position represents an about-face after the State Department said in May it would aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students. It would also mean a huge enrollment influx, as the number of Chinese students studying at U.S. institutions slipped all the way to 277,000 in 2023-24 after peaking at 373,000 in 2019-20. China’s foreign ministry on Wednesday said it hopes the administration will follow through and end “unprovoked harassment, interrogation, and deportation” of Chinese students. (The Chronicle, Associated Press, Reuters)
Visa holdups eat into fall enrollment: Colleges are allowing international students to defer their admission until spring or take classes online if they’ve been unable to get into the country because of visa delays. An expansive enrollment picture isn’t available before colleges conduct September censuses, but early indicators suggest at least some have seen significant enrollment fallout. The University of Maryland-Baltimore County said visa-issuance rates for master’s students have been about half of previous years, and Cornell University added that some graduate students chose not to come because of the U.S. political climate. Others report less of an effect, such as Grinnell College, in Iowa, which said only one of 72 international students was unable to make it to campus because of visa delays. (Inside Higher Ed)
Impacts of visa delays
The big story: The impacts of visa delays are becoming (marginally) clearer with the new semester under way. Colleges like University of Maryland Baltimore County and Cornell University both reported that some graduate students were unable to get their visas before the start of the semester, though David Di Maria, vice provost for global engagement at UMBC, said some students remain hopeful they can secure visas in the coming days or weeks. Other institutions say their students aren’t experiencing any out-of-the-ordinary visa issues.
The number of international students impacted by delays won’t be confirmed until colleges complete their censuses, but experts say a significant number of students have been forced to defer until the spring due to visa issues. Sudhanshu Kaushik, who has led the North American Association of Indian Students for five years, also noted an uptick in visa denials among applicants from India, the country that currently sends the most students to the U.S.
Forecast of things to come?
Is this fall’s drop in international students a blip or a sign of things to come? Visa backlogs, caused by a three-week suspension of student interviews in late spring, are the prime cause of current declines. But unlike that last-minute hurdle, the new international-admissions season begins with headwinds, such as social-media vetting and visa crackdowns, already established. Will prospective students earlier in their planning process skip the United States and apply to study in other countries? — Karin Fischer, senior writer
