2020 USA Student Visa Trends

Thousands of students from countries around the globe travel to colleges and universities in the United States every year to obtain their degrees. With over one million international students across US campuses for the last four (4) years, they have now become a standard feature in the majority of higher education institutions in America.

However, this was not always so. International education is one sector in the US, which constantly undergoes evolution, witnessing significant changes in the most popular subjects, the total number of students enrolled, and other features.

Putting these changes in the spotlight, we take a look at the 2020 USA student visa trends. 

Growing International Student Visa Issues in US Colleges

With tightening immigration restrictions, US higher-education institutions have become swamped with paperwork. The immigration policies of the Trump-led government are starting to have an acute impact on international students’ admission into universities as these prospective students grapple with challenges to obtain the visas that are needed to study in the US.

Commenting on the development, Brian Rosenberg, the president of Macalester College — which is a liberal-arts institution in St. Paul, Minnesota — said: “I think that both [the Trump administration’s] immigration policy and the messaging of the day are literally turning [international] students away … and making them less inclined to want to study in the United States.”

After climbing steadily for over 10 years, the number of new international students, which enrolled at colleges in the United States, has recently decreased. Survey data gathered by the Institute of International Education (IIE) showed that during the 2016–2017 academic calendar, enrollment of these students had a 3% decline in comparison with the 2015–2016 session.

It fell again during the 2017–2018 school year by around 7% as shown by the most recent survey results from the institute.

With these growing US student visa issues, it is not surprising to find that the number of enrolled international students in American colleges has dropped.

Decline in Numbers of International Student in the United States

According to quarterly data on US student visa holders from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), from March 2018 to March 2020, the total number of international students enrolled in US institutions at all levels fell by 2.7%.

Further, according to another IIE report, between the 2015-2016 and 2018-2020 school years, there is a drop (over 10%) in the new enrollment of international students at US universities. In the same period, the enrollment of international students in other nations has soared, particularly in Canada and Australia.

Obviously, the new immigration restrictions in Trump’s administration are the likely culprit, responsible for the poor performance of American colleges and universities in attracting foreign students compared with other nations.

Rise of International Students

The number of foreign students enrolled at American colleges and universities kept increasing in 2016/2017 and 2017/2018, even with the decline in the number of new students. This was due to the fact that the departing cohorts still paled in comparison with the arriving ones.

In another year or two of declines in new international students enrolled, the overall number of these students will begin to fall. However, the declines will have to occur for an awfully long number of years before the figure will get anywhere close to the numbers of around half a decade ago.

Rise in Undergraduate, Graduate and OPT Program Enrolments

Related to the point discussed above, this is the fourth issue we will look in this post on 2020 USA student visa trends.

In the last ten (10) years, the number of international students enrolled in US universities and colleges at all three levels rose. But from 2014/15 onwards, there was a spike in Optional Practical Training (OPT) international enrolment, exceeding the increase in undergraduate as well as graduate studies.

Explaining the increasing trends, the IIE, in a press statement, stated: “Policy changes that allow STEM students to remain in the US on Optional Practical Training opportunities for 36 months after the completion of their studies likely continue to drive the increase in students on OPT programmes, which increased by 9.6 percent to 223,085.”

In a Nutshell

The tightening immigration restrictions during the Trump-led government is a key development in the 2020 USA student visa trends, which has spawned a number of issues in the United States. Last year, there was a decline in the number of enrolled foreign students in US tertiary institutions mainly due to the challenges these students face in obtaining a US student visa.

As the United States prepares for another general election billed to hold in November 2020, it would be interesting to observe the changes that will crop up in the country’s education sector, especially pertaining to enrollment of foreign students.