Foreign students are a boon to the US. Here's why that may change.
The first week of May, some of the European Union's most high-profile leaders gathered to launch a new initiative called "Choose Europe for Science." Speaking from the Sorbonne, France's most prominent university, they announced a 500-million euro investment meant to attract foreign researchers and college students to campuses across Europe.
In a thinly veiled swipe at Donald Trump, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, noted that the new program stood in stark contrast to the state of research funding in other global regions, where "the role of science in today's world is questioned."
"The investment in fundamental, free and open research is questioned. What a gigantic miscalculation," she said, adding that "science has no passport, no gender, no ethnicity or political party."
American colleges and universities have long been the most desired destinations for students from across the globe. Hundreds of thousands flock to the United States annually to enroll in undergraduate and graduate programs. In the 2023-24 school year alone, foreign students contributed more than $43 billion to the U.S. economy, according to NAFSA, the Association of International Educators.
International students have long played an essential role at many U.S. colleges to support research, budgets and teaching programs. But the Trump administration's recent changes to immigration and education policy have led to widespread uncertainty at those schools, where administrators say they're bracing for a larger crisis if fewer students from abroad opt to study in the United States.
In an unprecedented move, the Department of Homeland Security in April threatened to remove Harvard University's ability to enroll any foreign students - a tactic other colleges worry could be used on them, too.
If that happened at Harvard, the consequences elsewhere would be devastating, said Suzanne Ortega, president of the Council of Graduate Schools.
"The bottom line is students have choices of where to go, and if they choose to go to other nations that appear to be more welcoming, those nations' gains will be the U.S.'s loss," she said.
Read more: Trump has been defunding university research. Does China benefit from it?
In a recent interview on CNN, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said that while she acknowledged the importance of academic research, she believed the federal government should play a smaller role in supporting it.
"Universities around the country have done a phenomenal amount of research," she said. "It's not incumbent upon the taxpayers to really foot the bill for all of that."
Chaos with student immigration records
In addition to cutting federal support for academic research, the federal government has targeted international students since the start of President Donald Trump's second term as part of a broader immigration crackdown.
In March, college officials watched in dismay as the Department of Homeland Security began quietly removing the records of thousands of foreign students from a federal immigration database.
At first, it was unclear why the students' records were being terminated. The Trump administration later revealed in court that the immigration records they erased, which allow foreign students to legally stay in the U.S., had been cross-referenced with a separate national criminal database. In some cases, lawyers said students had their legal statuses altered for minor traffic violations, such as unpaid parking tickets.
Ron Cushing, the director of international services at the University of Cincinnati, said after the terminations began, chaos ensued. The students he worked with were in shock, and it wasn't clear what they were supposed to do next.
"The only real option for most of these students was to obtain legal counsel," he said.
As he understood it, once students' records were terminated, their legal status in the country was in jeopardy. After a flurry of lawsuits filed by students, judges across the country ordered injunctions saying that the Trump administration was likely violating the law.
Though the Justice Department ultimately restored many students' immigration records, the court battle underscored how much the government was willing to expand executive power to deport students.
Trump administration officials have accused many international students of supporting Hamas and characterized student visa revocations as part of a broader campaign to quell unrest on college campuses.
Colleges depend on international students
While international students make up roughly 6% of the higher education population, they play an outsized role in supporting schools' teaching, research and budgets.
Unlike domestic students, they're more likely to pay full tuition costs. At many schools, enrolling one foreign student can have at least three times the financial effect of enrolling an in-state student, according to Clay Harmon, the executive director at the Association of International Enrollment Management, which helps colleges recruit international students.
"There are a lot of reasons why many institutions are trying to look at international enrollment as one solution to address their financial challenges," he said.
In STEM-focused graduate programs, the number of international students typically outweighs the number of domestic students, according to data from the Council of Graduate Schools. That dynamic, in many cases, makes more degrees possible for U.S.-born students. By paying tuition and teaching classes, international students help many schools maintain academic programs that would otherwise struggle.
Of course, foreign students help with more than just campus budgets, said Kevin Timlin, the executive director of international education and services at Southeast Missouri State University.
They also bring new viewpoints to classrooms. The cross-cultural bonds that form on campuses like his create more tolerance, he said, making the world a better place. For Timlin, that's what college is all about.
"International students don't just shore up what we do," he said. "They're integral to what we do."
Contributing: Sara Chernikoff and Jennifer Borresen
Zachary Schermele is an education reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social.
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