This Is Concerning
Regardless of who-knows-how-many studies that have illustrated the benefits of diversity in learning environments, statistics published this past month and discussed in Brendan O’Malley’s article, “Decline of International Graduate Enrollment Quadruples,” show that international enrollment in the United States has declined for the second year in a row.
The decline, O’Malley reports, “coincides with the tightening of immigration policies under the Trump administration,” beginning in January 2017. “The current policy climate around US visas and immigration” as well as the increasing cost of education, O’Malley credits, “may be a contributing factor” to encouraging international students to rethink their choices to study here in the U.S. O’Malley supports this assertion with researchers who’ve noted that “[r]ecent anti-immigration policy directions and sentiments related to curtailing of H-1B work visas and increasing scrutiny of Optional Practical Training (OPT) are largely responsible for this decline” and that “this is triggering a segment of graduate students to reconsider the US as a destination for graduate studies.”
O’Malley’s report follows seven months after his March article, “International Students Turn Away from US, UK, to Canada,” in which he reports that, although the U.S. and U.K. are still the most-preferred destinations when all regions are combined (this past year, the most popular countries in which to study were: the U.S. (48%), the U.K. (42%), Canada (34%), Australia (28%, and Germany (28%)), Canada this past year has overtaken the U.S. and U.K. as the preferred study destination for international students applying from a number of regions.
While this boost in diversity is great for Canada, it’s been the diversity of students in the United States that has made this country a global leader in graduate education and research. With a decline in international applicants and admitted students, it’s not difficult to anticipate the consequent repercussions.
October 30, 2018 @ 6:41 pm
It is honestly disheartening how much impact government stances can effect students’ ability to come to the United States and contribute to the educational system. I agree, diversity is a massive factor in the quality of our higher education framework and we should be doing everything we can to foster that diversity. I am not sure if you have seen this, but the current administration is planning on passing an executive order to remove birth right citizenship for noncitizens — https://www.npr.org/2018/10/30/662043904/trump-says-he-will-void-birthright-citizenship-law-through-executive-order. I am not sure the direct implications it will have for graduate education, but the ‘anti-immigration’ undertones of this administration will likely continue.
October 30, 2018 @ 7:10 pm
The current anti-immigrant sentiment in the Trump administration is definitely concerning. Not only does is reduce the diversity of universities and make life harder for international grad students I think it lowers the value of higher education in the US. When I was visiting University of Toronto in Spring of 2017 as part of their graduate recruitment weekend, we discussed how the university administration was going to take advantage of the anti-immigrant sentiment in the US by increasing recruitment of top international students, particularly those impacted by the travel ban Trump had recently signed. Though it was sad that the situation exists, I don’t blame UToronto for seeing the US’s mistakes as an opportunity to increase their own international standing in higher ed.
October 30, 2018 @ 7:16 pm
I wonder how much of the decline is from people opting not to come to the US because of its policies, rather than those policies restricting their access? I wonder if people don’t want to come to the US because of what it increasingly stands for? Moreover, the anti-intellectualism rhetoric of the current political elite doesn’t really inspire one to seek out higher education here, in fact it makes it seems like perhaps one wouldn’t get the best education here because we don’t value intellectual or scientific thought. We have done many things as a nation recently that have made it clear to other nations that we don’t listen to scientists, that we don’t value scientific consensus, that we don’t value a diversity of ideas or appreciate the importance of a diverse culture, so why would someone want to come here to be educated?