Shorelight’s latest analysis quantifies the impact of declining international student enrollment across states and districts, focusing on new student arrivals.
With a 20% decrease in new international student enrollment, US colleges and universities could lose more than $1.7 billion annually in tuition revenue.
Over the course of a student’s academic journey, this drop could translate to nearly $5 billion in lost revenue. These losses are more than just numbers. They represent real consequences for the United States:
Shrinking resources for academic programs and research
Job losses in university towns and surrounding communities
Diminished global influence and talent leadership
Check out our dashboard to further assess the impact of such a decline at a state and congressional district level. The darker states on the map are more vulnerable, as they host large numbers of international students. The cities and towns of these universities are not just education hubs; they’re economies built around a globally mobile student population.
Although our focus here is on tuition dollars alone, international students are more than that. They add to the community, bringing diversity, innovation, and value. They contribute to the economy at large and support hundreds of thousands of jobs, as we know from NAFSA’s broader Economic Value Data Tool.
If the US is serious about maintaining its leadership in the global knowledge economy, it must treat international student access as a strategic priority.
A View of the Impact by State
Source:
Shorelight Analysis of I-20s Issued, as obtained by the Freedom of Information Act
