Trump Is Scaring Away Some Foreign Students
New data shows a continuing but modest decline in the flow of international students to U.S. colleges and universities.
Cooler welcome.
Photographer: Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty ImagesThe number of new international students at U.S. universities fell for the fourth academic year in a row in 2018-2019. But only by a little bit (the new-student number was 0.9% lower than the previous year’s).
These data, released today by the Institute of International Education, shed a little more light on the question whether the policies and rhetoric of President Donald Trump are endangering what has been a lifeline for many U.S. universities as well as a long-running boost to the trade balance (the money foreign students spend here counts as an export of educational services), a key source of talent and a generator of American soft power. They don’t exactly answer it, though.