Penn State's international enrollment is likely being affected by the Trump administration’s policies, which university leaders said could mean a drop in students from other countries.
Penn State has about 9,000 international students.
Fotis Sotiropoulos, Penn State’s new provost, said during a Faculty Senate meeting Tuesday that the university does not have the final enrollment numbers for this fall yet, so he doesn’t know for sure: “But I can be almost fairly certain to say we will have a decline in the number of international students. It’s just impossible. The trend suggests that. The only thing we don’t know is how much that decline is going to be.”
NAFSA: Association of International Educators and JB International released an analysis this summer. It says American universities could see a 15% drop in international students.
Their projection cites factors including a pause in visa interviews earlier this year, reports of students from some countries having a hard time getting appointments at consulates, and a drop in the number of visas being issued.
Sotiropoulos pointed to similar factors, including countries not wanting to sponsor their students to come here and concerns about declines in research grants.
He said while the university may have been considering increasing the number of international students before, now maintaining those numbers would be “a big victory.”
