Latest news with #XiaofengWan
Miami Herald
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
College Uncovered: The Student Trade Wars
U.S. universities have long relied on international students, and the big tuition checks they bring, to hit enrollment goals and keep the lights on. But now, just as the number of American college-aged students begins to fall - the trend that higher education experts call the "demographic cliff"- global tensions are making international students think twice about coming to the United States for college. In this episode, hosts Kirk Carapezza and Jon Marcus take you inside the world of international admissions. With student visa revocations on the rise and a growing number of detentions tied to student activism, some international families say they are rethinking their U.S. college plans. And that has college leaders sounding the alarm. In fact, international student interest was already falling. Now, as the Trump administration ramps up immigration crackdowns on campuses across the country, many worry the U.S. could lose its status as the top destination for global talent. So what happens if international enrollment drops just as domestic numbers dry up? The stakes are high, not just for international students and colleges but for what everybody else pays - and for the whole U.S. economy. TRANSCRIPT [Jon] This is College Uncovered. I'm Jon Marcus … [Kirk] … and I'm Kirk Carapezza. [sound of presentation, in Mandarin] [Kirk] That's Xiaofeng Wan, making his pitch in Mandarin to Chinese students and parents at a high school in Shanghai. Wan used to be an admissions officer at Amherst College in western Massachusetts. Now he's a private college consultant, guiding Chinese students through the maze that is college admissions in the U.S. [Xiaofeng Wan] So I'll walk them through the initial high school years before they apply. And then by the time of their college applications, I'll help them go through the process as well. [Kirk] This is big business for colleges. Like most international students, Chinese families do not qualify for financial aid, and often they pay the full cost. Wan also trains guidance counselors across China, showing them how to support students heading abroad. So he's got a front-row seat to what Chinese families are thinking right now. [Xiaofeng Wan] They see the United States as a primary study-abroad destination. [Kirk] But Wan says that might be starting to shift. [Xiaofeng Wan] America has an image problem right now, so we will definitely start to see reluctance from families. [Kirk] I caught up with him while he was in Ningbo, a port city known for manufacturing, on the same morning President Trump's tariffs on Chinese goods took effect. [sound of news anchor] Across the globe this weekend, world leaders are trying to figure out how to respond to President Trump's attempt to reshape the global economy by imposing steep tariffs. … [Kirk] Just hours later, the Chinese government warned the more than 270,000 Chinese students already studying in the U.S. to think twice about staying. Wan says that kind of message stokes fear that's been building. House Republicans sent letters to six universities saying America's student visa system has become a Trojan horse for Beijing, and a lot of Chinese parents worry the U S government doesn't want their kids. [Xiaofeng Wan] That's what they've been hearing from President Trump, his rhetoric toward Chinese students. And now they're seeing news about how international student visas are being revoked. [Kirk] This is College Uncovered, a podcast pulling back the ivy to reveal how colleges really I'm Kirk Carapezza with GBH News … [Jon] … and I'm Jon Marcus with The Hechinger Report. Colleges don't want you to know how they operate, so GBH … [Kirk] … in collaboration with The Hechinger Report, is here to show you. This season, we're staring down the demographic cliff. [Jon] If you're just joining us, a quick refresher here: The demographic cliff is a steep drop in the number of 18-year-olds. That's because many Americans stopped having children after the Great Recession of 2008. And now, 18 years later, colleges are feeling the pinch. [Kirk] Yeah, and just when many of them thought the situation couldn't get any worse, international students are under threat. During President Donald Trump's first term, we saw visa restrictions and travel bans contribute to a 12 percent drop in new international enrollment. So we'll ask, could that happen again, just as schools are scrambling to fill empty seats? [Jon] And we'll explain what all of this means for you, whether you're an international student or a domestic one, and why you should care. Today on the show: The Student Trade Wars. [Kirk] Since Trump's return to power, his administration has yanked more than 1,000 student visas, often without explanation. Some students have been detained and faced deportation, fulfilling a pledge he often made on the campaign trail. [Donald Trump] If you come here from another country and try to bring jihadism or anti-Americanism or antisemitism to our campuses, we will immediately deport you. You'll be out of that school. [Kirk] In just a few months, that hardline rhetoric has become policy, putting campuses on edge. ICE agents have detained pro-Palestinian student activists, including Mahmoud Khalil at Columbia and Rumeysa Ozturk at Tufts. [sound from arrest of Rumeysa Ozturk] [Kirk] This video of her arrest has shaken the international campus community and sparked protests across the country. [sound of protesters] Free Rumeysa, free her now! We want justice, you say how? Free Rumeysa, free her now! [Kirk] And now many international students won't even go on the record, too scared the federal government will target them, or that they'll be doxxed and ostracized online. [Frank Zhao] The biggest difficulty for us is building trust. [Kirk] At Harvard, student journalist Frank Zhao has seen that fear firsthand. He hosts the weekly news podcast for the student newspaper. [sound of podcast] From The Harvard Crimson, I'm Frank Zhao. This is 'News Talk.' [Kirk] Zhao isn't an international student himself, but the Chinese-American junior from Dallas is plugged into the campus, where a quarter of students are international. How would you describe the current climate for international students? [Frank Zhao] The overwhelming sentiment is anxiety. There are so many international student group chats where students were saying, 'Oh my gosh, there are ICE agents on campus.' And so it's quite the Armageddon scenario. [Kirk] The Trump administration has demanded Harvard turn over detailed records of all foreign students' - quote - illegal and violent activities, or lose the right to enroll any international students. Harvard says it has complied but won't publicly disclose details. The university is suing the administration over this and other demands, but some faculty and students question how hard Harvard is really pushing back. Conservatives, though, defend increased immigration enforcement. [Simon Hankinson] If a student is studying and minding their own business and obeying the rules of the college and of the United States and the state that they live in, they have nothing to worry about. This is a very small number of people that is being looked at for fraud. [Kirk] Simon Hankinson is a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation. He says visa vetting on and off campus is essential for national security after a year of disruptive campus protests. [Simon Hankinson] Maybe your parents are shelling out a lot of money for you to go, or you're getting a scholarship. Get your education. Make that the priority. Sure, go out and hold a placard if you want to, and do your thing, light a candle, but if your primary focus is protest and vandalism, I think you're on the wrong type of visa, and we don't have a visa for that. [Jon] Higher education is now a global marketplace, and international students have emerged as a key part of the university funding equation. They're fully baked into the business model as full-pay customers for colleges who subsidize the cost for domestic students. [Kirk] And even before the demographic cliff, the competition for international students was fierce. [Gerardo Blanco] It always has been and sometimes it is intended to be that way, but this is just making it like the Hunger Games [Kirk] That's Gerardo Blanco, director of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College. He warns tht Trump's America First approach, combined with federal funding cuts, is putting U.S. colleges at risk of losing a generation of global talent. Is that hyperbole? [Gerardo Blanco] I don't think it's hyperbole in any way. [Kirk] Why not? [Gerardo Blanco] The system has been built on the assumption that there wouldn't be decreases in a dramatic scale to the funding dedicated to research. And therefore they have made some decisions that are somewhat risky. [Kirk] What's your biggest concern when it comes to international students? [Gerardo Blanco] It's just the generalized sense of uncertainty. I think there are so many balls up in the air and I think it's really difficult to even focus our attention. [Kirk] Take the reduction of research funding, for example. It's affecting many graduate students, especially those who are international and can't find work in labs. Some schools like Iowa State University, Penn, and West Virginia University are rescinding graduate admissions offers. [Gerardo Blanco] So that's one squeeze. We also are looking at just the general rhetoric that tends to be negative. [Kirk] And Blanco says that rhetoric matters. One survey at the start of Trump's second term found that nearly 60 percent of European students were less interested in coming to the U.S. Blanco said, considering the demographic cliff, the timing for all of this uncertainty couldn't be worse for colleges. [Gerardo Blanco] The clock is ticking and nobody really knows what's happening. [Kirk] Okay, so, Jon, why should American students and citizens care about all of this? [Jon] Well, international students bring different perspectives and experiences to the classroom. And as we said earlier, they also tend to pay full tuition. So they subsidize tuition that American students pay. But a drop in international student numbers isn't just a college cash-flow problem. It's a broader economic one. International students infuse $44 billion into the U.S. economy each year. Here's Barnet Sherman, a business professor at Boston University. It's New England's largest private university, and one in five students there are international. [Barnet Sherman] Look, I just teach business and finance. So if one of my top 10 customers comes to me with $44 billion to spend and creates a lot of American jobs, over 375,000 American jobs, I don't know about you, but I'm opening up the door and giving them the best treatment I possibly can. [Jon] Here in Massachusetts alone, there are about 80,000 international students contributing $4 billion to the state's economy each year. That puts the state fourth in the U.S., after California, Texas and New York. So, yeah, this matters. But Sherman says the impact goes far beyond big cities like Boston, New York, and L.A. Take the tiny town of Mankato, Minnesota, for example - population, 45,000. [Barnet Sherman] And they've got about 1,700 international students there contributing to the local economy. They're bringing in literally over $25 million to, you know, a perfectly nice burg. [Jon] In addition to tuition dollars, these students contribute to businesses and local communities that are losing population. [Kirk] And, Jon, if fewer international and domestic students are coming through the pipeline to fill jobs that require college educations, it puts the U.S. at a serious disadvantage, just as other countries are actively recruiting talent and increasing the number of their citizens with degrees. More and more countries are recruiting international students, including Canada, France, Japan, South Korea and Spain, but also countries that hadn't recruited before, like Poland and Kazakhstan. Right before Trump's first term, I went to Germany, where the government was offering free language classes to attract international students and scholars, including Americans. Because just like the U.S., Germany is losing population. A demographic cliff has already hit Europe, so it needs immigrants and international students, too. Think of it like this: It's a global talent draft. All of these students, they're the trading cards. The collectors are the countries. And the more talent you attract, the more ideas, innovation and business growth you get. [Dorothea Ruland] If you look at Germany, the only resource we do have are human resources, actually. [Kirk] Dorothea Ruland is the former secretary general of the German Academic Exchange Service, which is in charge of Germany's international push. When I visited Bonn, we had coffee at her headquarters. [Dorothea Ruland] We depend on innovation, on inventions, of course, and where do they come from? From institutions of higher education or from research institutions. [Kirk] Ruland told me nearly half of foreign students earning degrees in Germany stick around. And not just for the short-term. About half of them stay for at least a decade. In the U.S., most international graduates leave and take their talent back home, often because of scarce visas available for skilled workers. Do you see Germany competing with American universities? [Dorothea Ruland] Yes, I would say so. You know, we are doing marketing worldwide because we are part of this world and we cannot neglect these trends going on. So of course we are competitors. [Kirk] But she also made it clear the student trade war isn't just about competition. It's about collaboration. [Dorothea Ruland] If you look at the global challenges everybody's talking about, questions of climate change, energy, water, high tech, whatever, this cannot be solved by one institution or one country. So you have to have big international networks. [Kirk] Since my visit, though, isolationism has been creeping in, not only in Germany, but Hungary and Russia, and obviously here in the U.S., too. Some professors and students have pointed to recent issues with visas and detainments without due process and accused the Trump administration of taking an authoritarian approach. [sound of protest] [Kirk] Outside Harvard's Memorial Church in Cambridge, more than 100 students and faculty recently held signs and waved American flags, cheering the university for standing up to the White House and calling on Harvard to do more to protect their civil rights. Among other things, they spoke out about visa revocations. It is incredibly scary here. Leo Gerdén is a senior from Sweden. He says the administration is trying to divide the campus community. [Leo Gerdén] At first I was very anxious about speaking up. They want us to point fingers to each other and say, you know, deport them, don't deport us. And you know, it's classic authoritarian playbook. [Jon] Trump supporters? Well, they see it very differently. [Simon Hankinson] I would call that ridiculous. I mean, that's an insane argument to make. [Jon] Simon Hankinson is a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation's Center for Border Security and Immigration. We heard from him at the top of this episode, and we should also add he's a career foreign service officer. [Simon Hankinson] So I've certainly interviewed tens of thousands of these applicants, including thousands of students. [Jon] Hankinson acknowledges the uptick in visa revocations lately, but says it's still a tiny number compared to the one million international students in the U.S. [Simon Hankinson] But just looking at the scale of it all, it is more than we've seen in the past, because, generally speaking, this wasn't something that the government devoted a lot of resources to. But it was always a power that they had. [Jon] And he's not buying the narrative that these changes and the crackdowns on visas will scare off students from coming to the U.S. [Simon Hankinson] Are people not going to go to Harvard because, you know, they're afraid that they're going to get hassled. No. Try going to Russia or China and speaking your mind. Good luck with that. [Jon] Hankinson also argues some universities - especially ones with a high percentage of international students, like Columbia, NYU, Northeastern, and Boston University - they have a financial incentive for complaining. [Simon Hankinson] It's a strong constituency that they want to keep happy and they want to keep the money flowing. So they want to make this as big an issue as possible. They want to cry panic. [Jon] So, Kirk, colleges signal all the time that they're open to international students. Just listen to some of these welcome videos. [sound of international recruiting videos] [Jon] But parents like Claire from Beijing don't feel like their kids are welcome. [Claire] I think the government is really hostile right now. [Jon] Claire asked us to withhold her full name, worried it could affect her son, who's already studying here. She also has a daughter in high school who was thinking about college in the U.S., but now they're rethinking her plans and looking at schools in the UK, Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong. [Claire] You know, we have to consider all the possibilities, obviously in a trade war, you know, like, because next year, when my child has to go to college, you know, Trump is still the president. [Kirk] Claire says she still believes in the power of an American education, so it's really hard for her to just write it off completely. [Jon] Okay. So, Kirk, we've tackled a lot in this episode. Bottom line, do you think American colleges will still be able to recruit and enroll enough international students to help offset this looming shortage we've been talking about in the number of 18-year-olds? [Kirk] Well, it's not looking great for colleges. International enrollment, as we said, dropped 12 percent during Trump's first term, and now we're heading toward a 15 percent drop in the number of 18-year-olds by 2039. That's a big gap to fill, and the reality is the current climate would have to shift dramatically and quickly for the U.S. to stay competitive. International students are essential for filling seats and making budgets, especially in regions like New England and the Midwest, where the demographic cliff isn't coming - it's already here. A college consultant once told me, if your campus isn't near an international airport, the clock is ticking on your institution. And that was before America developed this reputation as an unwelcoming place. [Jon] So what do you think you'll be watching as we continue to cover this issue? [Kirk] Yeah, for me, one of the biggest questions is how colleges handle what I see as a major communication and messaging problem. Administrators and faculty haven't done a great job telling the full story of what U.S. universities actually do, or why international mobility benefits the country as a whole. [Jon] This is College Uncovered. I'm Jon Marcus from The Hechinger Report … [Kirk] … and I'm Kirk Carapezza from GBH News. [Jon] This episode was produced and written by Kirk Carapezza … [Kirk] … and Jon Marcus, and it was edited by Jonathan A. Davis. Our executive editor is Jenifer McKim. Our fact checker is Ryan Alderman. GBH's Robert Goulston contributed reporting to this episode. [Jon] Mixing and sound design by David Goodman and Gary Mott. All of our music is by college bands. Our theme song and original music is by Left Roman out of MIT. Mei He is our project manager, and head of GBH podcasts is Devin Maverick Robins. [Kirk] College Uncovered is made possible by Lumina Foundation. It's a production of GBH News and The Hechinger Report and distributed by PRX. Thanks so much for listening. The post College Uncovered: The Student Trade Wars appeared first on The Hechinger Report.
Observer
20-04-2025
- Business
- Observer
Losing international students could devastate many US colleges
Xiaofeng Wan, a former admissions officer at Amherst College, now works as a private consultant to international students who want to come to the United States. This week, as he held meetings in China with prospective students, he sensed a deep uncertainty among their parents. 'They don't know whether they should send their children to a country where they don't welcome Chinese students or they see China as a hostile competitor,' Wan said by telephone from Beijing. 'It's an unprecedented situation that we've never seen before.' For years, American colleges and universities have attracted growing numbers of international students who often pay full tuition, effectively subsidizing domestic students. But the Trump administration's recent move to deport hundreds of students here on visas, and his trade war with China, have stoked fears that the United States is no longer a welcoming place for international students. This week, the administration also asked Harvard University to hand over lists of foreign students, adding to a sense of panic on campuses. Suzanne Ortega, president of the Council of Graduate Schools, said the chaos of visa terminations had fueled concerns among many students. 'I think it sends a powerful signal to friends and family at home that the U.S. is not a safe place to be anymore,' she said. If the nation gains a reputation for being hostile to international students, it could be devastating for many American colleges and universities. There were more than 1.1 million international students in the United States during the 2023-24 academic year, according to a recent report released by the Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the Institute of International Education. The number includes students who remain in the country briefly after graduation to gain work experience. The report identifies New York University, Northeastern University and Columbia University as the three largest host schools for international students. At NYU, their enrollment has increased nearly 250% over the last decade. Losing foreign students could also be bad for the broader economy, experts say. International students pumped nearly $44 billion into the U.S. economy and generated 378,000 jobs last year alone, according to NAFSA: Association of International Educators, which promotes international education. Moody's, the bond rating agency, downgraded the higher education outlook to 'negative' last month, citing federal policy changes as a threat. The Trump administration has said that it is targeting international students who have broken the law or pose a threat to its foreign policy interests. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has argued that 'no one has a right to a visa.' In remarks last month, he said that in giving and revoking visas, 'we're going to err on the side of caution.' 'We are not going to be importing activists into the United States,' he added. 'They're here to study. They're here to go to class. They're not here to lead activist movements that are disruptive and undermine our universities. I think it's lunacy to continue to allow that.' International student enrollment had been on an upward trajectory for decades. Gaurav Khanna, an economist at the University of California, San Diego, who has studied foreign students, said the revenue they bring in helped some public universities weather the Great Recession. Khanna's research found that schools that could attract students from abroad were often able to avoid raising in-state tuition for domestic students and major research and instructional cuts. 'To keep doors open for local students, you need to let in more international students,' he said. Beyond the economic effects, leaders in higher education worry that decreases in international enrollment will deter the world's top minds from coming to the United States. International students accounted for nearly 6% of the total higher education population in the United States, according to the IIE report. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where more than 1 in 4 students hail from abroad, the president, Sally Kornbluth, said on Monday that the university would be 'gravely diminished without the students and scholars who join us from other nations.' 'The threat of unexpected visa revocations will make it less likely that top talent from around the world will come to the U.S.,' Kornbluth said in a message to campus. 'That will damage American competitiveness and scientific leadership for years to come.' Chris R. Glass, a professor at Boston College who studies international enrollment, estimates that 50,000 to 75,000 international graduate students in science and technology fields could be affected by federal grant cuts. Overall, he said the number of international students could fall below 1 million for the first time since the 2014-15 academic year. An analysis by The New York Times found that the Trump administration has canceled more than 1,500 visas at 222 schools nationwide. Immigration agents have also sought to detain and deport several students and researchers. Some of the visa revocations appear to be related to legal infractions in students' pasts, a few are related to activism, and in some cases students do not know why they have lost their visas. One international student from London, Patrick, who is 22, described a huge amount of fear among his fellow students. He asked that neither his last name nor his university in New York be identified for fear of repercussions. He said that he had recently deleted all of his text messages because he was worried about surveillance when he reentered the country. Still, he said, he plans to finish his senior year in the United States and stay for a year after graduation. President Donald Trump's first term also brought a chill to international student enrollment. In 2017, Trump banned travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries, and many colleges reported dips in foreign applicants. A larger decline occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. 'Certain universities probably can weather the storm. But other universities don't have the resources,' Khanna said. 'If they get cut off from a lot of their funding and at the same time get cut off from revenue from international students, they're in trouble.' Many of the students arriving from outside the United States view their degrees as paths to employment in the country. But as the Trump administration seeks to crack down on immigration, some students could be deterred by the anxiety that studying in the U.S. and joining the domestic labor force no longer 'guarantees you the things you thought it did,' Khanna said. It was already a particularly perilous time for American schools, which are facing a decline in students as birthrates dip. Recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics predicts that the annual number of graduating high school seniors, which peaked this year at more than 3.8 million, will decline to 3.5 million by 2032. During Trump's first term, some American universities tried to persuade foreign students to come in spite of concerns about a hostile administration. Now, universities are scrambling to help the international students already enrolled who have been forced to leave. After the State Department canceled the visas of 40 students and recent graduates of Northeastern University in Boston, the school said that it would offer some of those students remote learning opportunities or transfers to its international campuses. Khanna said it wasn't clear what might happen long term, this time. 'There's a question of, 'Will the U.S. lose this comparative advantage?'' This article originally appeared in
New York Times
19-04-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Losing International Students Could Devastate Many Colleges
Xiaofeng Wan, a former admissions officer at Amherst College, now works as a private consultant to international students who want to come to the United States. This week, as he held meetings in China with prospective students, he sensed a deep uncertainty among their parents. 'They really don't know whether they should send their children to a country where they don't welcome Chinese students or they see China as a hostile competitor,' Dr. Wan said by telephone from Beijing. 'It's an unprecedented situation that we've never seen before.' For years, American colleges and universities have attracted growing numbers of international students who often pay full tuition, effectively subsidizing domestic students. But the Trump administration's recent move to deport hundreds of students here on visas, and his trade war with China, have stoked fears that the United States is no longer a welcoming place for international students. This week, the administration also asked Harvard to hand over lists of foreign students, adding to a sense of panic on campuses. Suzanne Ortega, president of the Council of Graduate Schools, said the chaos of visa terminations had fueled concerns among many students. 'I think it sends a powerful signal to friends and family at home that the U.S. is not a safe place to be anymore,' she said. If the nation gains a reputation for being hostile to international students, it could be devastating for many American colleges and universities. There were more than 1.1 million international students in the United States during the 2023-24 academic year, according to a recent report released by the Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the Institute of International Education. The number includes students who remain in the country briefly after graduation to gain work experience. The report identifies New York University, Northeastern University and Columbia University as the three largest host schools for international students. At N.Y.U., their enrollment has increased nearly 250 percent over the last decade. Losing foreign students could also be bad for the broader economy, experts say. International students pumped nearly $44 billion into the American economy and generated 378,000 jobs last year alone, according to NAFSA: Association of International Educators, which promotes international education. Moody's, the bond rating agency, downgraded the higher education outlook to 'negative' last month, citing federal policy changes as a threat. The Trump administration has said that it is targeting international students who have broken the law or pose a threat to its foreign policy interests. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has argued that 'no one has a right to a visa.' In remarks last month, he said that in giving and revoking visas, 'we're going to err on the side of caution.' 'We are not going to be importing activists into the United States,' he added. 'They're here to study. They're here to go to class. They're not here to lead activist movements that are disruptive and undermine the — our universities. I think it's lunacy to continue to allow that.' International student enrollment had been on an upward trajectory for decades. Gaurav Khanna, an economist at the University of California, San Diego, who has studied foreign students, said the revenue they bring in helped some public universities weather the Great Recession. Dr. Khanna's research found schools that could attract students from abroad were often able to avoid raising in-state tuition for domestic students and major research and instructional cuts. 'To keep doors open for local students, you need to let in more international students,' he said. Beyond the economic effects, leaders in higher education worry that decreases in international enrollment will deter the world's top minds from coming to the United States. International students accounted for nearly 6 percent of the total higher education population in the United States, according to the I.I.E. report. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where more than one in four students hail from abroad, the president, Sally Kornbluth, said on Monday that the university would be 'gravely diminished without the students and scholars who join us from other nations.' 'The threat of unexpected visa revocations will make it less likely that top talent from around the world will come to the U.S.,' Dr. Kornbluth said in a message to campus. 'That will damage American competitiveness and scientific leadership for years to come.' Chris R. Glass, a professor at Boston College who studies international enrollment, estimates that 50,000 to 75,000 international graduate students in science and technology fields could be affected by federal grant cuts. Overall, he said the number of international students could fall below 1 million for the first time since the 2014-15 academic year. An analysis by The New York Times found that the Trump administration has canceled more than 1,500 visas at 222 schools nationwide. Immigration agents have also sought to detain and deport a number of students and researchers. Some of the visa revocations appear to be related to legal infractions in students' pasts, a few are related to activism, and in some cases students do not know why they have lost their visas. One international student from London, Patrick, who is 22, described a huge amount of fear among his fellow students. He asked that neither his last name nor his university in New York be identified for fear of repercussions. He said that he had recently deleted all of his text messages because he was worried about surveillance when he re-entered the country. Still, he said, he plans to finish his senior year in the United States and stay for a year after graduation. President Trump's first term also brought a chill to international student enrollment. In 2017, Mr. Trump banned travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries, and many colleges reported dips in foreign applicants. A larger decline occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic. 'Certain universities probably can weather the storm. But other universities don't have the resources,' Dr. Khanna said. 'If they get cut off from a lot of their funding and at the same time get cut off from revenue from international students, they're in trouble.' Many of the students arriving from outside the United States view their degrees as paths to employment in the country. But as the Trump administration seeks to crack down on immigration, some students could be deterred over the anxiety that studying in the U.S. and joining the domestic labor force no longer 'guarantees you the things you thought it did,' Mr. Khanna said. It was already a particularly perilous time for American schools, who are facing a decline in students as birthrates dip. Recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics predicts that the annual number of graduating high school seniors, which peaked this year at more than 3.8 million, will decline to 3.5 million by 2032. During President Trump's first term, some American universities tried to persuade foreign students to come in spite of concerns about a hostile administration. Now universities are scrambling to help the international students already enrolled who have been forced to leave. After the State Department canceled the visas of 40 students and recent graduates of Northeastern University in Boston, the school said that it would offer some of those students remote learning opportunities or transfers to its international campuses. Dr. Khanna said it wasn't clear what might happen long term, this time. 'There's a question of 'will the U.S. lose this comparative advantage?''
