AAC&U News | April 2004 | Facts & Figures

Surveys Find Disturbing Trends in International Student Application Rates

Recent surveys by the Institute of International Education (IIE), NAFSA: Association of International Educators, the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), and other organizations are raising concerns about international educational exchange in the post-9/11 environment. Although the results are mixed, three separate surveys of colleges and universities conducted over the past year suggest that the numbers of international students applying to study in the U.S. are stagnant or declining. This trend--which is developing at a time when exchange between the U.S. and other countries is seen by many as especially important--seems to be linked to negative perceptions of the U.S. and of U.S. visa policies. As NAFSA reported in a February survey, schools attribute some of the decline in application rates to "an impression on the part of potential applicants that an unwelcoming climate for international students now exists in the United States, and that this is demonstrated most visibly by the difficulty they face in securing a visa in a timely manner."

FINDINGS

Visa Delays Impede Educational Exchange

Among 232 institutions responding to an October (2003) survey, there was a 49 percent increase in the number of visa delays that resulted in missed start dates for new and continuing international undergraduate students. There was a 48 percent increase in such visa delays for international graduate students, and a 76 percent increase for international scholars and researchers.
Nearly 80 percent of the delayed students at responding institutions were from China, India, or a Muslim or Arab country. More than one-third were from China.
Seventy-seven percent of delayed students were in the physical sciences, biological sciences, or engineering. Engineering was the academic discipline of nearly 40 percent of delayed students.
Among institutions that reported a decrease in applications by international students between 2002 and 2003, 94 percent cited as a cause the perception that U.S. visas are too difficult to obtain. Sixty-six percent noted the perception that the U.S. is unwelcoming.

Declining Rates of Application by International Students

Among 382 institutions responding to a February (2004) survey, 36 percent reported a decline in the number of prospective international undergraduate students applying to U.S. colleges and universities. Thirty-five percent indicated that rates of application had not changed, and 29 percent indicated an increase.
Among 250 institutions responding to the same survey, nearly half (47 percent) reported a decline in the number of applications from prospective international graduate students. Thirty-eight percent indicated that rates of application had not changed, and only 14 percent reported an increase.
Among both undergraduate and graduate students, rates of application to the twenty-five research institutions that serve the most international students declined between 2002 and 2003. Nineteen of these twenty-five schools were included in the February survey, and twelve of the nineteen reported a decline in the rates of undergraduate application. All nineteen schools indicated a decline in the rates of graduate application, and among these, nine indicated a decline of 30 percent or more.
A separate survey of 113 graduate schools conducted this spring indicates that the decline in rates of application by international students is continuing--and perhaps is accelerating--in 2004. Over 90 percent of the schools included in this survey reported an overall decrease in international graduate student applications for Fall 2004. Total international graduate student applications at the surveyed schools dropped 32 percent between the Fall 2003 and Fall 2004 semesters.

DID YOU KNOW?

As of 2003, international students comprised 4.6 percent of the total number of students enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities.
586,323 international students studied in the U.S. last year. That number represents an increase of just 0.6 percent over the previous year.
Asian students comprise over half (51 percent) of all international enrollments.
Last year, numbers of students from the Middle East were down 10 percent from the previous year.

The results of all three of the surveys from which these findings are taken are available on the Web. IIE's annual Open Doors Report is found online at opendoors.iienetwork.org; NAFSA, online at www.nafsa.org, has posted survey results in its press room; and CGS features survey results on the front page of its Web site, www.cgsnet.org.