International Student Enrollment Declining

NBC News Radio National Correspondent Rory O'Neill joins us to discuss decreasing international student enrollment in United States colleges and universities. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, guess what foreign student enrollment is down? This is
West Michigan's Morning New Steve Kelly, Repketa, Lawrence Smith, Adam
of Roach Show, and guess what Rory O'Neil is on
the liveline. IB Seniors Radio National correspondent. Good day to you.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hey, there's Steve. Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
So what kind of numbers that we're talking about when
we talk about enrollment down for those international students.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yeah, this comes from the Institute of International Education, which
is a nonpartisan organization that tracks these kinds of things.
It finds that new international student enrollment dropped seventeen percent
this year. That's the largest drop in more than a decade.
When you don't include the pandemic.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Seventeen percent is significant. I'm guessing we have some ideas why.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Well, right, Look, there are a lot more restrictions being
put on by the second Trump term. There's more pressure,
it's more difficult to try to get visas to come here.
There are other hurdles that are being imposed, harsher screenings
for some even detentions for people if they give pro
palacetin Indian speech. So there's a sense that perhaps some
of these international students may not be welcomed here, and

(01:03):
that's what's making them look elsewhere.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Has there been and do you even have numbers? Could
this be more of a natural correction in some spots too.
I've seen that some have been a little critical about
the ratio of international students because you can charge them more.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Right, Well, that's one of the hooks, right, is that
they all pay top dollar to come here, and in
some cases you want to attract them here and hopefully
you get them to say, you know, for a while,
there was sort of this idea of if some foreigner
wants to come into the US and go to some
of our elite institutions, and then if they want to
become a doctor who cures cancer, not only do you

(01:39):
give them a diploma after four years, you give them
a green card too and invite them to stay because
you want that kind of investment. It's foreigners essentially built
places like Silicon Valley, and you want to keep some
of that top talent. But overall, nearly fifty seven percent
of universities reported a decrease in new international students this fall.

(02:00):
Twenty nine percent, i should say, did note an increase.
Others were about flat.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
Interesting, so it may be a university by university thing,
any of them working together to maybe send a message
to the administration that they need a little help.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Uh, nothing we've seen that's gotten too organized just yet.
But you know, as you said, in many ways, there
could be an effort to recruit these kinds of foreign
BOARDT students. But then you get institutions like Harvard that
are so bombarded with these applications that you know, they
have their choices to do they want to come to
the school.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
It's Rory O'Neill, NBCIWS Radio National Correspondent, Thank you, Hey,
Thanks Dave