The News
International enrollments at American colleges rebounded strongly in the 2022-23 academic year, increasing 12 percent, the largest single-year growth in more than four decades.
The number of international students in the United States once again surpassed one million, after dipping below that level during the pandemic. American campuses hosted some 1.057-million students from abroad last year, according to newly released data from the Institute of International Education and the U.S. Department of State.
Growth was especially robust at the graduate level, where enrollments increased by 21 percent over the previous year, the annual “Open Doors” report showed. The number of international graduate students in the United States, more than 467,000, hit an all-time high.
The Details
Undergraduate enrollments, by contrast, rose much more modestly, by just 1 percent, to 347,600. However, this is the first time in five years that the number of foreign undergraduates increased.
The number of students taking part in Optional Practical Training, the popular work program for international graduates of American colleges, also climbed, by 8 percent. (Because participants in the training program remain on student visas, they are counted in the annual international-student census.)
Mirka Martel, head of research, evaluation, and learning for the institute, said graduate enrollments “spiked faster” post-pandemic for several reasons. Graduate students are older and more likely to make independent decisions, while parents may have wanted to keep younger undergraduates closer to home because of health and safety concerns. The impact of pent-up demand can also be felt more quickly in shorter academic offerings than in four-year bachelor’s programs. International enrollments in master’s programs took an especially big jump, 37 percent.
Martel said she would be watching to see if the current data augur longer-term shifts in global mobility, with more students earning undergraduate degrees in their home countries and waiting to go abroad for advanced study. For much of the past decade, undergraduate enrollments outpaced graduate enrollments at American colleges.
The other explanation, in a word: India. Enrollments from India, where two of three students are pursuing graduate degrees, shot up by 35 percent from the previous year.
A record number of Indian students, almost 269,000, studied in the United States. Still, China edged out India as the top-sending country in the “Open Doors” report, with 289,500 students on American campuses. Chinese enrollments, however, were stagnant.
Regionally, sub-Saharan Africa had the biggest increase in enrollments, up by 18 percent. Two countries in the region, Nigeria and Ghana,, were among the top 25 sending countries.
The Backdrop
The strong growth is a reversal from the pandemic years. New enrollments for international students fell more steeply during the Covid outbreak than for any other demographic group.
International enrollments have largely rebounded, with total student numbers slightly below their pre-pandemic level. The number of foreign students also increased, by 4 percent, in the 2021-22 academic year.
Still, the focus on the pandemic can obscure some of the other headwinds facing American colleges, including geopolitical tensions, demographic and economic shifts, improved educational capacity in students’ home countries, increasing competition for global talent from other destination countries, and a perception that the United States is less than welcoming to outsiders.
New international enrollments had declined in the four years before the pandemic. And while the United States remains the top destination for students from overseas, it has lost ground, falling from 28 percent of all globally mobile students in 2001 to just 15 percent today.
A new coalition of education organizations, advocacy groups, and think tanks is pushing for a coordinated national strategy to reassert the United States as the leading destination for global talent, as well as to ensure the success of foreign students on American campuses and establish immigration pathways to help retain top international graduates.
The Stakes
Yet international students may be more important to American higher education now than at any other time. Their presence on campus exposes their American classmates to different cultures and perspectives, a crucial skill for navigating a global workplace.
Colleges have come to rely on international students, who often pay the full cost of their tuition, as a critical source of revenue. As the number of college-age Americans declines, they could help stave off the enrollment effects of the demographic cliff. Already, one in five graduate students is from overseas, according to the Council of Graduate Schools.
Their impact is not simply confined to campus. International students contributed more than $40 billion to the American economy, supporting some 368,000 jobs, according to new estimates from NAFSA: Association of International Educators.
What to Watch for
The good news is that the growth is expected to continue. In a snapshot survey, administered this fall by the Institute of International Education and several partner organizations, colleges reported an 8-percent increase in international students.
Nine in 10 institutions said they plan to expand their overseas enrollments over the next five years. The 630 colleges that responded to the snapshot survey account for 57 percent of all international students on American campuses.
A separate Chronicle analysis of real-time visa data tracked a 9-percent bump in student visas issued for the fall of 2023. That figure includes a sizable increase in visas to both Indian and Chinese students, although India overtook China to become the top source of foreign students in the United States. One challenge for colleges will be to diversify international recruitment beyond those traditional source countries.
