International students return to U.S. campuses but not at even rates
After an unprecedented plunge during the Covid-19 pandemic, the latest data show international enrollments at American colleges trending upward.
The number of first-time foreign students climbed 80 percent in the 2021-22 academic year, and overall international enrollments ticked up 4 percent, according to Open Doors, the annual report from the Institute of International Education and the U.S. Department of State.
Mirka Martel, the institute’s head of research, characterized the findings as a “strong comeback” for international-student mobility. No other demographic group experienced as large a decline during the pandemic as international students.
Despite robust growth, particularly among new students, total international enrollments, of about 950,000, remained below pre-pandemic highs, however.
Dig into the data, and it’s clear that the flow of students has rebounded faster from some countries than from others. Enrollments from India, for example, are up nearly 20 percent from their pandemic lows, to almost 200,000 students.
But among the top 25 countries that send students to the United States, nearly half sent at least 10-percent fewer students to American colleges in 2021 than they had before the pandemic. Several of these top-sending countries have been even slower to bounce back, with enrollments from China, Japan, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia more than 20-percent lower than they were in the 2019-20 academic year.
The news out of China, long the engine of international-student mobility, is likely to be especially troubling for colleges that have come to rely on tuition dollars from a booming Chinese market. And we can say with certainty: Student interest from China has continued to decline in the current academic year.
While the Open Doors data is retrospective, a Chronicle analysis of U.S. student-visa data last month found that the number of new visas going to students from China for this fall term tumbled — new-visa issuances to Chinese students were down 45 percent from pre-pandemic levels and from the fall of 2021.
At the same time, enrollment growth from India has continued to surge, the visa data show. Here’s what else the Open Doors report can tell us:
For the first time in a decade, there were more international graduate students in the United States than international undergraduates. Overall enrollments at the graduate level increased by 17 percent in 2021-22, to more than 385,000. Undergraduate enrollments declined by 4 percent, to about 345,000.
In a briefing with reporters, Martel attributed some of the growth among foreign graduate students to pent-up demand from students who put off their studies during the pandemic. New graduate enrollments were up 121 percent.
Swelling graduate enrollments also reflect a surge in India — eight in 10 degree-seeking students from India are at the graduate level.
In addition to graduate programs, the number of international students enrolled in English-language courses and other nondegree programs increased more than 60 percent in 2021-22, although the growth only partly made up for the steep drop in such programs during the pandemic. Meanwhile, the number of student-visa holders working in the United States as part of the Optional Training Program fell 9 percent, the second year of declines.
When it comes to international students, the bigs got bigger. The colleges that educate the largest numbers of international students experienced healthy enrollment increases in 2021-22, of 10 percent on average. The top 25 leading institutions now enroll more than a quarter of all international students, the institute reports.
By contrast, enrollments at associate-degree colleges sunk for the fifth year in a row.
The more things change, the more they stay the same: Even during the height of the international-student boom of the past decade, enrollment increases were concentrated among a small share of institutions.
The return of international students is good for the American economy. An analysis by NAFSA: Association of International Educators found that international students contributed $34 billion to the U.S. economy in 2021-22, a 20-percent increase over the year before.
Still, economic impact remains $6.5 billion below the high-water mark, in 2018-19, the group said.
Finally, while there’s a lot of talk about returning to pre-pandemic enrollment levels, it’s worth recalling that the number of international students in the United States had begun to decline before the Covid outbreak. New foreign enrollments had been falling for four years before the pandemic, and in the 2019-20 academic year, total enrollments decreased by 2 percent.
In recent remarks, Esther D. Brimmer, NAFSA’s executive director, noted that the United States’ share of all globally mobile students has dropped 8 percent since 2001.
For American colleges, these figures are an important reality check: Although the pandemic has dominated headlines, the challenges for international enrollments are more longstanding and varied than Covid alone.