International student numbers at the University of Colorado at Boulder will drop 6 percent this year, following a trend throughout the United States that has intensified as national security measures tighten and the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia move to attract students discouraged by U.S. policies.
International student enrollment peaked on the Boulder campus in 2002 at 1,165 and has been soft or declining since then, following a downward trend in international student numbers nationwide, said Larry Bell, director of the CU-Boulder Office of International Education.
International student enrollment at CU-Boulder for fall 2005 is 912, down from 966 in fall 2004. Fall 2003 international enrollment was 1,081.
"The problem of declining international student numbers has been pinned on visa acquisition as the one and only problem but this issue is much more complex than that," said Bell, who has worked in international education for more than 25 years at CU-Boulder, CU-Denver and previously the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
"Student access to our universities has become more and more difficult, including the problems of getting visas, getting Social Security cards, driver's licenses and other documents," Bell said.
"Added to that now is the fact that other countries are seeing our reluctance to welcome foreign students as a major opportunity for them to take in these students. This new competition is perhaps our biggest challenge - to win back the confidence of international students who are finding much better opportunities to study someplace other than the United States," he said.
At CU-Boulder, like other American universities, international students come primarily to pursue advanced degrees. Of the 912 international students at CU-Boulder this year, 44 percent are working on doctoral degrees and 21 percent on master's degrees. A smaller percentage of foreign students, about 34 percent, are working toward undergraduate degrees.
Degree fields tend to be in engineering and the sciences, with 38 percent enrolled in the engineering college, 43 percent in arts and sciences and 12 percent in the business college. Majors with the highest number of international students include electrical engineering, economics, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, physics and telecommunications.
CU-Boulder's international students come primarily from China, India and Korea, with smaller numbers from Japan, Canada, Germany, Taiwan, Thailand and a few other countries.
In addition to earning degrees in the most respected higher education system in the world, international students also want to learn English, which is why the United States' major competitors for students are England, Canada and Australia, Bell said. But countries such as Germany also are trying to take advantage of the gap in the American system.
"The Germans are offering degree programs in English now as a way to expand their international student base," Bell said.
A primary motivating factor for America's higher education competitors is the income that international students bring to host nations.
"International education continues to be this nation's fifth largest export industry," according to Bell. "Bringing international students into the country is a multibillion dollar industry. The government agencies that are involved at any point in the process of importing students, and to some extent private industry, are the beneficiaries."
Universities have been sounding the alarm over the loss of students because of its impact on advanced degree programs and because foreign students are more likely to major in the hard sciences and engineering so important to innovation and patent development. But growing concern over lost income from international students may be the issue that gets policymakers' attention, said Bell.
"Suddenly and for the first time we're talking about market share and economic advantage, we're talking in business terms that we never used to use," he said, describing meetings with International Education colleagues. "In addition, some in Congress are beginning to understand that there's a major economic impact to government and to industry of our failure to admit these students.
"We're still No. 1 in attracting international students, but the slippage has been heavy and it will take a national effort to turn that around."
Congressional action to reverse restrictive policies "to make the U.S. a more welcoming place as other governments are doing, and to make the process easier" is now being discussed, Bell said, and policy changes may be on the horizon.
One such proposal, the International Student and Scholar Access Act, would require the president to submit a strategic plan to Congress that would enhance international student access to the United States for study and exchange activities. On July 23, U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman introduced legislation that would streamline the visa process and require the government to develop a strategic plan to attract foreign students and eliminate barriers for students and exchange visitors.
Such legislation, if approved by Congress, will help universities such as CU-Boulder reverse the tide of declining international enrollment, Bell said. "We need to return the United States to the country of destination for international students."