[The New York Times(education)]Foreign Enrollment Declines at Universities, Surveys Say

美國大學外籍學生人數下降

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By SAM DILLON

Published: November 10, 2004

Many of America's top research universities suffered steep declines in foreign student enrollment this fall, according to two new surveys, and alarmed educators blamed delays in processing American visas as well as increased competition from universities overseas.

Educating international students is a $13 billion industry for the nation's 4,000 colleges and universities, and in many science and engineering departments a majority of graduate students are foreign.

The number of Chinese students who applied to attend American graduate schools this fall dropped 45 percent compared with fall 2003, according to a survey of its 450 member institutions by the Council of Graduate Schools. Applications from India fell 28 percent, the survey found. The decline in actual enrollments of students from those countries was less severe, however: 8 percent for Chinese and 4 percent for Indian students, the survey found.

The declines represent a troubling turnaround after three decades in which American colleges and universities experienced a boom in the enrollment of foreign students. The uninterrupted growth ended in the fall of 2003, when the country registered its first decline in foreign enrollment since 1971, 2.4 percent, according to the Institute of International Education.

"This is a serious problem for our country," said Peter D. Spear, the provost at the University of Wisconsin, where foreign enrollment declined by 3.8 percent, to 3,435 this year from 3,571 last year. "We depend on international students to provide a good portion of our science and engineering work force," Dr. Spear said.

At Arizona State University, which has about 60,000 students, the number from foreign countries fell 7 percent this fall over last. "It's a major issue for us, and it's going to get worse," said Michael M. Crow, the university's president. "We need workers in our scientific and engineering laboratories, and Americans tend to go into business, economics and law, while international students go into science and engineering. So our pool of talent is going down."

The countries contributing the most students to Arizona State's total enrollment are China, Taiwan, India, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, Dr. Crow said, and for students from all those countries, obtaining an American visa has become frustrating.

"For students from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, it's extremely difficult," he said.

Other causes of the decline in foreign enrollment include increasing competition from universities in Britain, Australia and New Zealand, as well as a large expansion of university capacities in the countries that send the most students to the United States, India and China.

"Both countries are dramatically increasing their capacity to train their own graduate students at home," by expanding existing universities and building new ones, said Peggy Blumenthal, a vice president at the Institute for International Education.

The institute released its annual report on student mobility, financed by the State Department, which surveyed enrollment data for the 2003-4 term. It found that total foreign student enrollment at 2,700 accredited institutions fell by 2.4 percent in the fall 2003 term, the first such drop since 1971.

At the same time, Nafsa: Association of International Educators released a survey, conducted with four other groups, of foreign enrollment this fall at more than 400 institutions. It found that some universities experienced impressive growth, like the University of Southern California, which has the most foreign students in the United States, 6,647, an enrollment that represents a 6 percent jump over fall 2003. But about two-thirds of the 25 universities with the most international students reported declines.

Similarly, in a survey released last week, the Council of Graduate Schools said 7 out of 10 graduate schools reported declines in first-time international graduate student enrollment.

Many universities that responded to all three surveys attributed the declines, at least in part, to visa denials and delays. Since Sept. 11, foreign students applying for visas have faced stringent review at American embassies. But science and technical students must also now be cleared by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency. Educators have been warning that the process keeps thousands of students away, and officials in the Bush administration are trying to fine-tune it, said Vic Johnson, a spokesman for the Association of International Educators.

"But there's a perception in the world now that students can't get a visa to study in the U.S. anymore, and that may take a long time to fix," Mr. Johnson said.

Visa problems are keeping away not only students, but eminent visitors, too, said Larry Faulkner, president of the University of Texas. J. M. Coetzee, a South African author and the 2003 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, who was once a doctoral student at Austin, cited the headaches of applying for a visa in declining to attend a ceremony to honor him there this fall, Dr. Faulkner said. And also citing potential immigration problems, the International Astronomical Union decided to hold its 2009 general assembly in Brazil, rather than Hawaii, said Ken Marvel, a spokesman for the union.