International enrollment rebounds 80% at U.S. colleges

The number of foreign students enrolling for the first time in U.S. colleges and universities last year rebounded to 80% of pre-pandemic levels, according to a State Department-sponsored report.

The count of newly enrolled international students rose to 261,961 in 2021-22, the department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the nonprofit Institute of International Education reported Monday..

That follows a drop of 100,000 new enrollments in the 2020-21 academic year after pandemic travel restrictions drove down applications in 2019-20.

“We are thrilled to see international student numbers on the rise, and to see the United States maintain its global leadership as the top destination of choice for international students,” Lee Satterfield, assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs, said in a statement.

Overall, 948,519 students from 200 countries studied in the U.S. last year, up 4% from 2020-21. The number has increased by 9% so far this fall.

Most of the recovery has come among graduate students, with undergraduate enrollment continuing to lag behind pre-pandemic levels.

The report found that undergraduate international student enrollment fell by 4% and graduate enrollment rose by 17% last year. As a result, the number of international graduate students studying in the U.S. exceeded the number of undergraduates for the first time.

University of Mississippi law professor Ronald J. Rychlak, a faculty athletics representative, cites COVID-19 travel restrictions that kept international athletes away from undergraduate sports recruiters.

“That can impact, for instance, the ability of a student to make a quick trip home or for a coach to make a recruiting trip to look at a promising tennis player,” Mr. Rychlak said.

“I fully understand students under such circumstances deciding to stay home rather than study abroad,” he added. “I expect that number will climb back to pre-COVID levels once such restrictions are no longer a concern.”

The report said the number of students coming to the U.S. last year from China — where stricter pandemic restrictions led many students to defer applications — fell by 9% to 290,086.

Over the same period, the number of Indian students coming to the U.S. grew by 19% to 199,182. That puts India in a position to overtake China this year as the leading exporter of college students to American schools.

“The number of undergraduate students from China is likely to continue to fall because of changes in Chinese government policies and the improving quality of its universities,” said Alan Ruby, a director of global engagement at the University of Pennsylvania. “If India continues to open up its education sector to international competition and closer international engagement, we could see a stronger flow of students between two important democracies.”

Many colleges and universities depend financially on international students, who tend to pay full tuition — unlike domestic students who take out federal loans.

According to the Commerce Department, international students contributed $32 billion to the U.S. economy last year. That is about $6 billion below the pre-pandemic high water mark.

Economist Weifeng Zhong, a senior research fellow at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, says the U.S. must keep attracting Chinese students to maintain these levels.

“America has long been the envy of the world’s academia and it’s crucial for us to keep it that way,” said Mr. Zhong, who immigrated from mainland China. “At a time of intense competition between the United States and China in the economy and technology, a brain drain would be the last thing we need.”

According to Monday’s report, international students made up 4.7% of the total U.S. higher education student population in 2021-22. About 90% of the internationals returned to in-person learning, with math and computer science passing engineering as their most common fields of study.

Many small colleges are desperate for international students to help keep their doors open after two years of COVID-fueled enrollment declines, according to the conservative National Association of Scholars.

Peter Wood, the group’s president, says Chinese nationals are quickly replacing Americans in lucrative STEM programs for that reason.

“The leaders of those universities look the other way when many of these students turn out to be agents of the Chinese Communist Party who are bent on acquiring U.S. technical expertise, cultivating close relations with our top researchers and engaging in outright theft of intellectual property,” said Mr. Wood, a former associate provost at Boston University.