Although the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a sharp drop in the number of international students studying in the U.S. over the 2020-21 academic year, the tally may be beginning to bounce back, according to findings released on Monday from an upcoming report by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational Affairs and the Institute of International Education (IIE).
“I think the report confirmed what we all feared and already suspected about last year’s international student enrollment drops,” said Dr. Stephanie K. Kim, an assistant professor of the practice and faculty director of higher education administration at Georgetown University. “But I think it was certainly also a really hopeful sign that the enrollment drops are starting to rebound considerably.”
Dr. Stephanie K. Kim
According to the IIE’s 2021 Fall International Student Enrollment Snapshot, the total number of international students studying in the U.S. increased by 4% in the fall of 2021, an improvement from the 16% decline found in the 2020 snapshot. And the number of new international students enrolling for the first time surged by 68% after a 46% decline in 2020.
However, these gains are not sufficient to erase all of the losses in the international student population that have occurred during the pandemic, according to the Open Doors 2021 report on International Educational Exchange, released by the State Department and IIE. Although the 2021 report expanded the definition of “international student” to include foreign students taking online classes at American universities either from within the U.S. or overseas, the results were stark: a 15% decline in international students for 2020-21, to just over 914,000. The drop is by far the greatest since the publication of the first Open Doors report in 1948.
Much of the decline came from international students who were preparing to begin their studies. Their 46% decline was far steeper than that of students who had already started their program in America: 3%.
“It was much more difficult for new international students to obtain visas to start their studies in fall 2020,” said Kim. “I think initially there was certainly a public health element to it, [but] very harsh visa restrictions…were largely xenophobic measures that were put in place very quickly under the rubric of the pandemic.”
Students who had already begun their programs had already obtained visas and were allowed to remain in the U.S. and take online courses.
