As Flow of Foreign Students Wanes, U.S. Universities Feel the Sting

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Date: January 3, 2018 at 6:14:25 AM EST
> To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] As Flow of Foreign Students Wanes, U.S. Universities Feel the Sting
> Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com
>
> As Flow of Foreign Students Wanes, U.S. Universities Feel the Sting
> By STEPHANIE SAUL
> Jan 2 2018
> <https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/02/us/international-enrollment-drop.html>
>
> At Wright State University in Ohio, the French horn and tuba professors are out. So is the accomplished swimming team.
>
> At Kansas State, Italian classes are going the way of the Roman Empire.
>
> And at the University of Central Missouri, The Muleskinner, the biweekly campus newspaper, is publishing online-only 
> this year, saving $35,000 in printing costs.
>
> Just as many universities believed that the financial wreckage left by the 2008 recession was behind them, campuses 
> across the country have been forced to make new rounds of cuts, this time brought on, in large part, by a loss of 
> international students.
>
> Schools in the Midwest have been particularly hard hit — many of them non-flagship public universities that had come 
> to rely heavily on tuition from foreign students, who generally pay more than in-state students.
>
> The downturn follows a decade of explosive growth in foreign student enrollment, which now tops 1 million at United 
> States colleges and educational training programs, and supplies $39 billion in revenue. International enrollment 
> began to flatten in 2016, partly because of changing conditions abroad and the increasing lure of schools in Canada, 
> Australia and other English-speaking countries.
>
> And since President Trump was elected, college administrators say, his rhetoric and more restrictive views on 
> immigration have made the United States even less attractive to international students. The Trump administration is 
> more closely scrutinizing visa applications, indefinitely banning travel from some countries and making it harder for 
> foreign students to remain in the United States after graduation.
>
> While government officials describe these as necessary national security measures, a number of American colleges have 
> been casualties of the policies.
>
> “As you lose those students, then the tuition revenue is negatively impacted as well,” said Michael Godard, the 
> interim provost at the University of Central Missouri, where 944 international students were enrolled in the fall, a 
> decline of more than 1,500 from the previous year. “We’ve had to make some decisions, budgetary decisions, to adjust.”
>
> International students pay double the $6,445 tuition of Missouri residents, and the lost revenue amounts to $14 
> million, according to Roger Best, the chief operating officer for the school, in Warrensburg, Mo. Dr. Best said that 
> the university has been forced to cut instructors in computer programs, where many of the foreign students were 
> enrolled, as well as defer maintenance and shave money from other departments, such as the campus newspaper.
>
> Nationwide, the number of new foreign students declined an average of 7 percent this past fall, according to 
> preliminary figures from a survey of 500 colleges by the Institute of International Education. Nearly half of the 
> campuses surveyed reported declines.
>
> Now that the revenue stream appears to be diminishing, the financial outlook may be dire enough to weigh down the 
> bond ratings of some schools, making it more expensive for them to borrow money, according to Moody’s Investors 
> Service. Last month, Moody’s changed its credit outlook for higher education to “negative” from “stable.”
>
> “Growing uncertainty for international student enrollment stems from immigration policies that are in flux,” Moody’s 
> said, warning that universities without global brand recognition would be hit hardest. While some flagship public and 
> elite private colleges have been affected, the Institute of International Education said, the biggest impact will be 
> felt by second-tier institutions.
>
> The shift comes just as some states also are experiencing a drop in domestic students, partly the result of a decline 
> in birthrates two decades ago. This year, the number of domestic undergraduate students dropped 224,000, or 1 
> percent, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
>
> [snip]
>
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