Growth in International Student Enrollment Slows, Even as Impact of Global Perspective Intensifies
Even as the number of international students in the United States increased by 3 percent over the prior year, the count for those enrolled at a U.S. institution for the first time in fall 2016 declined by nearly 10,000 students — the first time the "Open Doors" project has seen a drop of those numbers in the 12 years since it began this reporting.
At the same time, the Association of Public & Land-Grant Universities (APLU)issued a report to its member institutions, calling on them to show leadership in "internationalization" efforts.
Open Doors is run by the Institute of International Education, supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Each year the non-profit organization conducts a survey among about 3,000 U.S. institutions to gather data on international students in the United States.
According to the "2017 Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange," in the 2016-2017 school year, U.S. colleges and universities hosted a record-breaking 1.08 million international students — for the 11th consecutive year of growth. The top five places they came from were China, India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Canada. The top five states they headed to were California, New York, Texas, Massachusetts and Illinois. (Each state saw increases in international students during the current academic year.)
However, only 291,000 students enrolled for the first time in the current school year, growth of just 3 percent compared to increases of 7 percent to 10 percent for the previous three years.
The report pointed to two broad factors influencing this "slowing of growth": a "mix" of global and local economic conditions and expanded opportunities for higher education closer to home. The biggest decreases of students, particularly for non-degree study (such as short-term exchanges and intensive English language programs) were found in Saudi Arabia and Brazil, where government scholarship programs were scaled back. The flattening trend would have had its seeds of origin planted two years ago, in 2015-2016, since that's when students on campus in fall 2016 would have applied and made their decisions regarding attendance.