This summer, U.S. graduate schools’ admissions offers to prospective international students plummeted, leaving many educators worried that international enrollment would be less than robust on campus this fall. Their fears were confirmed today with the news that there was no growth in first-time enrollment of foreign students entering American graduate schools from 2008 to 2009, according to a report released today by the Council of Graduate Schools.
It is the first time that figure has been flat since the organization first started doing the survey in 2004, says Nathan Bell, the author of the report and the council’s director of research and policy analysis. The zero percent change from 2008 to 2009 follows four consecutive years of growth.
“Growth was slowing in the last few years with international students, but it was still growth,” Bell says. “This marks a big change. It is a shift and it is something that we need to watch.”
The report comes at a time when some international students are questioning whether it is still a worthwhile investment to come study in the U.S., as opposed to their home country. The dismal global economy, challenges securing H-1B visas in the U.S. and difficulty obtaining student loans seems to have had a sobering effect on many applicants, Bell says.
Indian students, in particular, seem to be the most disenchanted with U.S. graduate schools; enrollment from first-time students from India was down 16%, the largest decline ever reported by CGS. On the flip side, first-time enrollment from China was up 16%. Both India and China are the two countries that send the most graduate school students to the U.S., so the net effect ended up being “a washout,” says Bell.
Trailing not far behind India was South Korea, where enrollment sank 13%. The largest spike in enrollment in the report came from the Middle East, where there was 22% growth, according to the report.
Back in August, a CGS report showed the U.S. graduate schools’ admissions offers to prospective international students from Indian and South Korea fell in 2009, with declines of 12% and 9% respectively. Of the Indian and South Korean students who received admissions offers, fewer than expected decided to matriculate this fall.
“It was a little surprising how steep those declines were,” Bell says. “To be honest, I didn’t think they be quite as bad as they were.”
The ripple effect of the stagnant enrollment figures is already being felt in some of the large academic departments that typically draw the most international students. There was either a decline or no growth at all in five of eight broad fields of study, the report says. First-time enrollment fell by 4% in physical and earth sciences, while remaining flat in business and engineering, the three largest fields of study for students, according to the study.
In the coming year, it will be interesting to see if international enrollment figures continue to remain flat, or, in the worst case scenario, decline. Many graduate schools, including business schools, have put into place new programs this year that help students obtain a no cosigner loan, which may help ease some international students’ anxiety about financing their education.
Readers, do you think international students will continue to be wary of coming to study in the U.S. in the coming year? Do you expect the decline in enrollment from countries like India and South Korea to persist?
Read the full article: Indian and South Korean Enrollment Sinks at U.S. Grad Schools