FEWER FOREIGN STUDENTS APPLYING TO AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES

AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES FEEL THE STING

International students provide the U.S. economy with an important financial income of billions of dollars every year. For their part, foreign graduate students contribute effectively to the development of some of the country’s most successful companies. This negative trend in the number of foreign students in the United States could also be exacerbated by the Trump administration’s plans to restrict access to employment for international students after graduation. The number of international students enrolled in the various graduate programs at U.S. universities stood at 633,000 in 2012. Since then, it has steadily increased to 840,160 in 2016. In 2017, there were 808,640 international students enrolled in the United States, including 367,920 students that were at graduate level and 440,720 at undergraduate level. The decrease in 2017, compared to 2016, is about 4%.

The impact of this decline is such that some institutions have decided to apply budgetary restrictions. For example, at Kansas State University, the Department of Languages is cutting Italian language classes. In Warrensburg, Missouri, computer programs and the campus newspaper were sacrificed. The situation is even more serious at Wright State University in Ohio. Italian, Russian and Japanese classes, as well as the swimming team, are suffering the consequences of these budget cuts.

VARIOUS FACTORS EXPLAIN THIS DECLINE

According to Raja Bandar from the Institute of International Education, the decline in the number of foreign students in the United States is due to a combination of several factors. While Anglo-Saxon countries such as Canada, Australia and Great Britain have gained market share, other countries such as Brazil and Saudi Arabia have recently changed the conditions for granting scholarships to their citizens who wish to enroll in a foreign university. The Trump administration’s anti-immigration policy and the rise of nationalism in the United States have only exacerbated this situation. As a result, many students are now turning away from the United States and prefer to pursue their studies elsewhere. U.S. universities are not the only ones concerned with this turnaround. Business schools are also not hiding their concerns, and for good reason: two out of three business schools in the United States are seeing a decline in enrolments from foreign students, reports the Financial Times.

To deal with the decadence of U.S. universities and business schools, students who wish to benefit from the excellent American teaching methods are offered other attractive alternatives. The American Business School of Paris, in particular, welcomes students from all over the world and offers them programs of the same or even better quality compared to those offered by U.S. business schools. It guarantees an international education to all its students and promotes their autonomy and professional success!