Fewer foreign students coming to United States for second year in row: survey

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

> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Fewer foreign students coming to United States for second year in row: survey
> Date: November 14, 2018 at 12:38:03 AM GMT+9
> To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com
>
> Fewer foreign students coming to United States for second year in row: survey
> By Yeganeh Torbati
> Nov 13 2018
> <https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-students/fewer-foreign-students-coming-to-united-states-for-second-year-in-row-survey-idUSKCN1NI0EN>
>
> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of international students entering U.S. colleges and universities has fallen for 
> the second year in a row, a nonprofit group said on Tuesday, amid efforts by the Trump administration to tighten 
> restrictions on foreigners studying in the United States. 
>
> New enrollments for the 2017-18 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 2016-17 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 dollar has made U.S. college tuition relatively more expensive, Canadian and European universities are 
> competing fiercely for the same students and headlines about mass shootings also may have deterred some students, 
> said Allan Goodman, president of IIE. 
>
> “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 American 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 U.S. 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. 
>
> IIE did not track new international student numbers before the 2004-05 school year, but Goodman said the recent 
> declines in new enrollments were comparable to the period after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The annual survey of 
> foreign-student enrollment is funded by the U.S. State Department. 
>
> Some immigration policy experts and college administrators attribute the decline to the Trump administration’s drive 
> to restrict immigration and an overall sense of a U.S. 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 Obama administration. 
>
> He noted 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 State 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. 
>
> “The U.S. Department of State is committed to facilitating the legitimate travel to the United States of individuals 
> who want to study in U.S. academic institutions,” Casagrande said during a phone call with reporters. “It’s quite 
> frankly unwarranted to say that it is completely the result of a political environment.” 
>
> Cary Jensen, assistant vice provost for international advocacy and engagement at the University of Rochester in New 
> York, said international students had been receiving more scrutiny from the U.S. government since the Sept. 11 
> attacks, but that “this last year and a half has just taken it to another level.” 
>
> Jensen said a major issue facing American universities was the lack of clarity surrounding the Trump administration’s 
> policies, in part due to lengthy court battles over policies like Trump’s travel ban on people from several 
> Muslim-majority countries. 
>
> [snip]
>
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