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International students in the United States are observing the 2024 presidential election with a mix of curiosity and concern, highlighting the global interest of American politics in the rest of the world.

When speaking with some current and former international students who have witnessed several U.S. presidential election campaigns, they were drawn to the openness of discussions and the amount of information available about the process.

They appreciate the high level of engagement and transparency in the electoral process, which stands in stark contrast to the more restricted political environments in their home countries. Their diverse feedback highlights the global interest in and impact of American politics.

Musbah Shaheen, a native of Syria, arrived in the U.S. in 2014 for undergraduate studies at Vanderbilt University. Now an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Shaheen said he initially found the political landscape confusing.

“The first U.S. election I experienced was in 2016. At the time, I didn’t even realize I was experiencing an election in the same way I did in 2020,” he said. “My interaction with the political system in the [United] States has been an eye-opening experience.”

In Syria, political discussions were often avoided, he said, adding that, “Politics was taboo. Family gatherings involved hushed conversations with windows closed and voices lowered.”

This contrasted sharply with the open political discourse he encountered in the U.S.

“In the United States, people sometimes feel like their voice doesn’t matter, but I have experienced actual fear of vocalizing what I believed. This country does feel like there is room for conversation and debate in a way that I didn’t really get when I was in Syria,” Shaheen said.

Now a faculty member, Shaheen emphasizes guiding students through ideological differences.

“I want my students to understand not just the policies but the ideologies behind them,” he said. “What does it mean to be conservative or liberal? What are the foundational beliefs of these ideologies?”

Shaheen emphasized the need to create both physical and emotional spaces where students can freely discuss topics like U.S. politics. Moreover, Shaheen calls for increased intellectual engagement.

“We need to encourage all students, international and domestic, to reflect on their beliefs and engage in meaningful conversations. We don’t want siloed resources for our students; we want them to engage with a variety of ideas,” he explained.

Rohan Naval, from Bengaluru, India, and a political science student at American University in Washington, offers a different perspective.

Naval, who has been studying in the U.S. for a year, mentioned being impressed by the extensive media coverage of U.S. elections.

“From a student’s perspective, I like the way U.S. elections are conducted. There’s a lot of media coverage, and efforts to get voters registered and informed are commendable,” he said.

Naval expressed surprise at the unpredictability of the current U.S. campaign.

“Everything we’ve seen over the last two months has been very surprising, like the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. It’s hard to predict what will happen next,” he said.

He was particularly surprised by President Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the race after participating in just one debate.

Naval, who grew up in India, compared U.S. and Indian elections, noting the convenience of mail-in ballots in the U.S. and the transparency in the counting process.

“In India, voters often have to travel long distances to cast their ballots, whereas in the U.S., the process is more accessible,” he said.

Victoria Charalampidi, a recent graduate from the American College of Greece where she majored in communication with a minor in international affairs, had studied in the U.S. in 2022 at Loyola University in Baltimore, Maryland.

“When I arrived, Joe Biden was president. I viewed his presidency as a shift away from Trump’s administration,” she said.

She noted that Trump’s economic policies had some positive effects, but she thought his approach to politics was often more divisive compared to Biden's approach during his candidacy.

Charalampidi said she found the complexity of governing a diverse nation intriguing.

She said she is disappointed with the current political campaigns in the U.S., which she said seems more polarized.

“The focus on military engagements and the rollback of policies like abortion rights show a country struggling to move forward while clinging to old values,” Charalampidi said.

She also says the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, represents progress as a woman of color is competing for high office.

As international students navigate the complexities of U.S. elections, their insights offer a valuable perspective on the global impact of American politics.

U.S. News & World Report tackles the challenges of paying for grad school as an international student with this story giving tips on paying for school. Read the full story here. (August 2024)

U.S. universities are welcoming international students as the academic year begins. But while the total number of foreign students is steadily growing, the top sending country, China, is showing signs of leveling out or shrinking.

Industry analysts say the negative trend is mainly due to higher costs amid China’s struggling economy, with a growing number of students going to less expensive countries like Australia and Britain, and tense ties between Washington and Beijing.

The number of foreign students studying in the U.S. in 2022-23 passed 1 million for the first time since the COVID pandemic, said Open Doors, an information resource on international students and scholars.

While the U.S. saw a nearly 12% total increase year-on-year for that period, the number of international students from China, its top source, fell by 0.2% to 289,526.

That’s 600 fewer students than the 2021-22 academic year, when their numbers dropped by nearly 9%. The COVID pandemic saw Chinese student numbers drop in 2020-21 by nearly 15%, in line with the world total drop.

While it’s not yet clear if the drop is a leveling out or a fluctuating decline, analysts say China’s struggling economy and the high cost of studying in the U.S. are the main reasons for the fall in student numbers.

Vincent Chen, a Chinese study abroad consultant based in Shanghai, said although most of his clients are still interested in studying in the U.S., there is a clear downward trend, while applicants for Anglophone universities in Australia and Britain have been increasing.

"If you just want to go abroad, a one-year master's degree in the U.K. is much cheaper,” Chen said. “Many people can't afford to study in the U.S., so they have to settle for the next best thing."

Data from the nonprofit U.S. group College Board Research shows that in the 2023-24 academic year, the average tuition and fees for a U.S. private college four-year education increased 4% to $41,540 compared with the previous academic year.

The British Council said three to four years of undergraduate tuition in Britain starts as low as $15,000.

The number of Chinese students in Britain was 154,260 in 2022-23, according to the U.K. Higher Education Statistics Agency, HESA, up from 121,145 in the 2018/19 academic year.

Australia’s Home Affairs office said in the 2023-24 program year, China was the top source foreign country for new student visa grants at 43,389, up slightly (1.5%) from the previous year.

Chen said Chinese state media's negative portrayal of the United States and concerns about discrimination have also contributed to the shift.

Bruce Zhang, a Chinese citizen who received his master's degree in Europe after studying in China, told VOA Mandarin he had such an incident occur to him after he was admitted to a U.S. university’s Ph.D. program.

When he entered Boston's Logan International Airport last year, Zhang said customs officers questioned him for more than an hour about his research, and if it had any links to the military, and took his computer and mobile phone for examination.

"Fortunately, I had heard that U.S. customs might be stringent in inspecting Chinese students, so I had relatively few study-related data and documents on my personal computer," he said.

Zhang was allowed to enter the U.S. for his studies in materials science, but the questioning left him so rattled that he has encouraged other Chinese to study elsewhere.

Cui Kai, a study abroad consultant in Massachusetts told VOA Mandarin that experiences like Zhang’s or worse happen for a reason.

"Students who were questioned or their visas were revoked at the customs are usually those who completed their undergraduate studies in China and come to the U.S. for a master's or doctoral degree in a sensitive major," said Cui.

Former President Donald Trump signed Proclamation 10043 in June 2020, prohibiting visas for any Chinese student who “has been employed by, studied at, or conducted research at or on behalf of, an entity in the PRC that implements or supports the PRC's “military-civil fusion strategy.”

The U.S. says China has been using students and scholars to gain access to key technology and, under Proclamation 10043, revoked more than 1,000 visas issued to Chinese nationals and has denied thousands more.

Critics say the policy is costly to the U.S. and is encouraging Chinese students to look to European and other universities.

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.