Student Union
New International Student Enrollment Falls 43% in the US
COVID-19 has drastically cut international student participation in U.S. colleges and universities, punctuating three years of declining enrollment tied to costs, immigration barriers and perceived chaos in American society.
In the school year that began three months ago, new enrollment of international students dropped 43% because of COVID-19. Nearly 40,000 students — mostly incoming freshmen — have deferred enrollment at 90% of U.S. institutions to a future term.
The data were compiled and reported by the Institute for International Education and published in its annual Open Doors report about international students in the U.S. It is funded by the U.S. Department of State, which issues visas to students and visitors participating in educational or vocational training.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted international student enrollment,” IIE report stated. “Many international students studying at U.S. institutions took advantage of opportunities to begin their studies remotely.”
Of the more than 1 million enrolled international students in the U.S., 20% turned to online learning this semester because of COVID-19 campus shutdowns. While some international students returned to their home countries, others are living off-campus or under strict guidelines on campus.
COVID-19 emerged on the cusp of 2020, while most university students were on winter break for Christmas and New Year’s. Students returned from points around the globe to their U.S. campuses, but by spring break in March, COVID-19 had become a pandemic and schools were struggling with how to keep their populations safe. Most campuses sent students home, shut down and moved instruction online.
Students and families pushed back on paying the high cost of tuition and fees, which can reach $70,000 per year for an undergraduate degree in the U.S., and 56% of international students pay out of pocket for their U.S. education. Many requested refunds and discounts for lack of dining and housing facilities, where universities derive the bulk of their student revenue.
The most recent data about enrollment in the semester that started this fall comes from IIE’s “fall snapshot,” which gathers data from more than 700 schools and is conducted by IIE and nine partner associations of higher education. The Open Doors data for the previous school year from August/September 2019 to May 2020 looks at a larger sample of 2,900 institutions.
There were 1,075,496 international students in the U.S., down nearly 2% from the previous year of 1,095,299. China and India again comprised more than half of the total. China sent 372,532 students to study in the U.S. while India sent 193,124.
While Chinese students increased at American schools by 0.8%, India sent 4.4% fewer students to the U.S. from year before.
At graduate schools, Chinese student numbers increased 3%. Those pursuing Optional Practical Training (OPT) increased 2%. OPT allows students to work in their field of study, typically science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). More than half of all international students pursued STEM degrees.
Among the top 25 countries to send students to the U.S., 18 showed declines from last year. After China and India, students came to the U.S. from South Korea (-4.7%), Saudi Arabia (-16.5%), Canada (-0.5%), Vietnam (-2.5%), Taiwan (1.5%), Japan (-3%), Brazil (3.8%), Mexico (-5.8%), Nigeria (2.5%), Nepal (-3.8%), Iran (-5.7%), United Kingdom (-3.5%), Turkey (-6.7%), Germany (0.6%), Bangladesh (7.1%), France (-2.8%), Kuwait (-8.9%), Indonesia (-0.7%), Spain (9.5%), Pakistan (-0.2%), Colombia (-3.4%), Malaysia (-10.4%), Venezuela (-11.7%.)
International students comprise 5.5% of the 19,720,000 students enrolled in U.S. higher education.
In last year’s Open Door report, institutions indicated some of the reasons for the decline in enrollment, including the high cost of tuition at U.S. colleges and universities, difficulty in getting visas or the insecurity of maintaining a student visa throughout a student's education, students feeling a lack of welcome in the U.S., negative political rhetoric and news of crime in the U.S.
This year, NAFSA: Association of International Educators found that the 2019-2020 international enrollment declines cost U.S. colleges and universities $1.8 billion, or 4.4% less than the previous year ($38.7 billion).
It was the first time that the dollar amount international students contribute to U.S. colleges and universities dropped in 20 years, said NAFSA.
“As the economic value decreases, we are reminded of the immense contributions that international students bring to America. We cannot afford to lose these talented individuals to a competitor country,” said NAFSA Executive Director and CEO Esther D. Brimmer.
“Our policymakers and legislative leaders must reaffirm America’s commitment to international students and scholars because our universities and colleges have never stopped doing so, and neither have our competitor countries,” she added.
Top hosting states showed declines in the number of students, (total number of students and percentage change): California (160,592, -0.7%), New York (126,911, 2.1%), Texas (77,097, -5.9%), Massachusetts (73,695, 3.7%), Illinois (51,966, -3.3%), Pennsylvania (50,070, -3.4%), Florida (46,221, 0.6%), Ohio (35,508, -4.8%), Michigan (31,408, -5.5%) and Indiana (28,136, -3.3%).
While Northeastern University in Boston moved up and University of Southern California moved down one rank this year, the top universities otherwise remained New York University (21,093), Northeastern University in Boston (17,491), University of Southern California (17,309), Columbia University (17,145), University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign (13,962), Arizona State University (13,136), University of California-Los Angeles (11,447), University of California-San Diego (11,272), Purdue University in Indiana (11,173), Boston University (11,158), University of California-Berkeley (10,695), Pennsylvania State University (9,244), University of Washington (9,236), University of Michigan (9,000), University of Texas (8,787), University of California-Irvine (8,773), Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh (8,694), University of California-Davis (7,919), Ohio State University (7,894), and Cornell University in New York (7,623).
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US college students face muted graduations amid Gaza war protests
Commencement ceremonies are being scaled back or canceled at U.S. universities because of security concerns over pro-Palestinian student protests. While some campus demonstrations have resulted in concessions, others have led to violent confrontations. VOA’s Tina Trinh has the story from New York.
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Police arrest 33 at George Washington University protest encampment
Police in Washington cleared a pro-Palestinian protest encampment at George Washington University early Wednesday, arresting 33 people, authorities said.
Arrests were made on charges of assault on a police officer and unlawful entry, the District of Columbia's Metropolitan Police Department said.
A congressional committee canceled a hearing on the university encampment Wednesday. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Washington Police Chief Pamela Smith had been scheduled to testify about the city’s handling of the protest before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.
University parents and faculty members gathered Wednesday afternoon for a press conference to condemn the handling of the protests by police and school leaders.
“The university clearly does not value the students at all and has endangered the safety of our children by unleashing officers dressed in full riot gear to assault and spray our children in their eyes with pepper spray,” said Hala Amer, whose son participated in the campus protests.
Police said they dispersed demonstrators because "there has been a gradual escalation in the volatility of the protest."
American University professor Barbara Wien said she stayed in the encampment with GW students. She described the student protesters as democratic and peaceful.
Police started to shut down the tent encampment after dozens of protesters marched to GW President Ellen Granberg's on-campus home on Tuesday night. Police were called, but no arrests were made.
Speakers at the conference called for Granberg’s resignation because, they alleged, she refused to meet and negotiate with student protesters.
“You keep inciting violence and ignoring the students,” Amer said about Granberg in an interview with VOA after the conference. “It will just lead to more violence. You need to talk to your students.”
GW officials warned students that they could be suspended for engaging in protests at the school’s University Yard, an outdoor spot on the campus.
"While the university is committed to protecting students' rights to free expression, the encampment had evolved into an unlawful activity, with participants in direct violation of multiple university policies and city regulations," a GW statement said.
More than 2,600 people have been arrested at universities across the country in pro-Palestinian protests, according to The Associated Press.
Students are calling on their university administrations to divest investments from Israel or companies with ties to Israel. Demonstrators have gathered in at least 50 campuses since April 17, carrying signs that read "Free Palestine" and "Hands off Rafah."
Rafah is Gaza’s southernmost city, where most of the territory’s population has clustered. The area is also a corridor for bringing humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory.
Israel seized the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing on Tuesday, while shutting off the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing, drawing criticism from humanitarian groups. Israel said Wednesday that it had reopened Kerem Shalom.
The nationwide campus protests started in response to Israel's offensive in Gaza that began after Hamas launched a terror attack on Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking roughly 250 hostages.
More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's offensive, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Israel warned it could "deepen" its operation in Rafah if talks failed to secure the release of the hostages.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
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Pro-Palestinian protesters break through barricades to retake MIT encampment
Pro-Palestinian protesters who had been blocked by police from accessing an encampment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Monday broke through fencing, linked arms and encircled tents that remained there, as Columbia University canceled its university-wide commencement ceremony following weeks of pro-Palestinian protests.
Sam Ihns, a graduate student at MIT studying mechanical engineering and a member of MIT Jews for a Ceasefire, said the group has been at the encampment for the past two weeks and that they were calling for an end to the killing of thousands of people in Gaza.
"Specifically, our encampment is protesting MIT's direct research ties to the Israeli Ministry of Defense," he said.
Protesters also sat in the middle of Massachusetts Avenue, blocking the street during rush hour in the Boston area.
The demonstrations at Columbia have roiled its campus and officials said Monday that while it won't hold it's main ceremony, students will be able to celebrate at a series of smaller, school-based ceremonies this week and next.
The decision comes as universities around the country wrangle with how to handle commencements for students whose high school graduations were derailed by COVID-19 in 2020. Another campus shaken by protests, Emory University, announced Monday that it would move its commencement from its Atlanta campus to a suburban arena. Others, including the University of Michigan, Indiana University and Northeastern, have pulled off ceremonies with few disruptions.
Columbia's decision to cancel its main ceremonies scheduled for May 15 saves its president, Minouche Shafik, from having to deliver a commencement address in the same part of campus where police dismantled a protest encampment last week. The Ivy League school in upper Manhattan said it made the decision after discussions with students.
"Our students emphasized that these smaller-scale, school-based celebrations are most meaningful to them and their families," officials said.
Most of the ceremonies that had been scheduled for the south lawn of the main campus, where encampments were taken down last week, will take place about 8 kilometers (5 miles) north at Columbia's sports complex, officials said.
Speakers at some of Columbia's still-scheduled graduation ceremonies include Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames and Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, director of the National Institutes of Health.
Columbia had already canceled in-person classes. More than 200 pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had camped out on Columbia's green or occupied an academic building were arrested in recent weeks.
Similar encampments sprouted up elsewhere as universities struggled with where to draw the line between allowing free expression while maintaining safe and inclusive campuses.
The University of Southern California earlier canceled its main graduation ceremony. Students abandoned their camp at USC on Sunday after being surrounded by police and threatened with arrest.
Other universities have held graduation ceremonies with beefed-up security. The University of Michigan's ceremony was interrupted by chanting a few times Saturday. In Boston on Sunday, some students waved small Palestinian or Israeli flags at Northeastern University's commencement in Fenway Park.
Emory's ceremonies scheduled for May 13 will be held at the GasSouth Arena and Convocation Center in Duluth, almost 20 miles (30 kilometers) northeast of the university's Atlanta campus, President Gregory Fenves said in an open letter.
"Please know that this decision was not taken lightly," Fenves wrote. "It was made in close consultation with the Emory Police Department, security advisors and other agencies — each of which advised against holding commencement events on our campuses."
The 16,000-student university is one of many that has seen repeated protests stemming from the conflict that started Oct. 7 when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking roughly 250 hostages. Student protesters are calling on their schools to divest from companies that do business with Israel or otherwise contribute to the war effort.
Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched an offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. Israeli strikes have devastated the enclave and displaced most of its inhabitants.
Hamas on Monday announced its acceptance of an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal, but Israel said the deal did not meet its "core demands" and that it was pushing ahead with an assault on the southern Gaza town of Rafah.
"Cease-fires are temporary," said Selina Al-Shihabi, a Georgetown University sophomore who was taking part in a protest at George Washington. "There can be a cease-fire, but the U.S. government will continue to arm the Israeli military. We plan to be here until the university divests or until they drag us out of here."
At the University of California, San Diego, police cleared an encampment and arrested more than 64 people, including 40 students.
The University of California, Los Angeles, moved all classes online for the entire week due to ongoing disruptions following the dismantling of an encampment last week. The university police force reported 44 arrests but there were no specific details, UCLA spokesperson Eddie North-Hager said in an email to The Associated Press.
Schools are trying various tactics from appeasement to threats of disciplinary action to get protestors to take down encampments or move to campus areas where demonstrations would be less intrusive.
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago said in a Facebook post Sunday that it offered protesters "amnesty from academic sanction and trespassing charges" if they moved.
"Many protesters left the premises of their own accord after being notified by the police that they were trespassing and subject to arrest," the school said. "Those that remained were arrested after multiple warnings to leave, including some of whom we recognized as SAIC students."
A group of faculty and staff members at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill asked the administration for amnesty for any students who were arrested and suspended during recent protests. UNC Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine said in a media advisory that it would deliver a letter on behalf of more than 500 faculty who support the student activists.
Other universities took a different approach.
Harvard University's interim president, Alan Garber, warned students that those participating in a pro-Palestinian encampment in Harvard Yard could face "involuntary leave." That means they would not be allowed on campus, could lose their student housing and may not be able to take exams, Garber said.
