The number of international students coming to American universities, like Boston University, has waned slightly in the last year. If the trend continues, it could have significant implications for universities’ student diversity and financial standards.
The preliminary figures from a survey of nearly 500 colleges by the Institute of International Education show that the number of new foreign students declined by an average of seven percent this past fall. Many believe this decline is a result of the anti-immigration rhetoric and policies proposed by the administration of President Donald Trump.
Kelly Walter, the associate vice president for enrollment and the dean of admissions for BU, said that while in recent years the number of international students has increased, the past few years have shown less growth.
“Last year we still saw an increase in applications,” Walter said. “[But] we can begin to see that the numbers were slowing down. We were not seeing the same increase that we saw 10 years ago, eight years ago or even five years ago.”
Walter said there are many factors contributing to the decline in international applications.
“There’s the conversation we’ve had over the past year about the travel ban, the stricter department guidelines in place for visas,” Walter said. “There’s the conversation about the possible termination of DACA. All of these issues are ones students around the world are aware of.”
College of Arts and Sciences senior Lauren Vanvalkenburg said she wonders what a decrease in international students at BU would mean with regard to financial aid.
“I wonder if it will affect financial aid, because international students usually pay full tuition,” Vanvalkenburg said. “So, I don’t know if they will give out less scholarships to the national students [if the trend continues].”
BU President Robert Brown has been outspoken about the importance of international students coming to the United States. In an editorial he wrote for the Boston Globe last year, Brown admonished the first travel ban that was proposed by Trump in January 2017.
“The new administration’s executive order to temporarily ban people from seven Muslim nations from entering the United States is fundamentally inconsistent with the values that are the bedrock of higher education,” Brown wrote in the editorial.
In an email to The Daily Free Press, Brown wrote that BU has seen a slight increase in the number of undergraduate international student applicants, but that the same could not be said for graduate school applicants.
Brown wrote that he thinks the decline in international graduate student applications to the university is likely a result of attitudes and policies of the Trump administration.
“Undoubtedly this is because of the unwelcoming attitude of our federal government and the declining possibilities for international students to stay and work in the United States,” Brown wrote. “This is a loss to our nation.”
School of Education freshman Sophie Ehrlich said she doesn’t think Trump is the main reason for the decrease in international students applying to colleges in the United States.
“I don’t think someone would choose their college because of the president,” Ehrlich said. “That’s pretty harsh to turn down a college acceptance because of one individual.”
In addition to reducing on-campus diversity, having fewer international students can make a university’s budget harder to meet, according to a presentation given by BU Director of Student Loans Vincent Simonelli. Foreign students contribute to a large portion of the university’s budget.
CAS senior Kevin Chen said he thinks Trump’s policies might have a bigger effect on the number of international students applying to BU in the future.
“I haven’t noticed so much a decrease in international students, but it might have a bigger impact later on in Trump’s presidency,” Chen said. “Trump’s been here just over a year now, and I guess some of his immigration policies might have been implemented, but it might take time to see the effects.”
Walter said the two most important characteristics that international students look for in a university are that its location is urban and that it has name recognition. She said she thinks BU will still be able to continue to enroll about 24 percent of the incoming freshman class as international students.
