According to a snapshot poll, the number of international students enrolling at US universities has begun to return following a pandemic-related reduction, although
Open Doors data shows additional declines in 2020/21. According to the Open Doors 2021 report, 914,095 international students studied in US colleges and universities in the 2020/21 academic year, a 15% reduction from the previous academic year.
Between 2014/15 and 2019/20, there were more than one million international students in the country on a yearly basis. According to NAFSA, the total loss in international students in the United States over the last two years amounts to a $12.1 billion drop.
According to the 2021 Fall Foreign Student Enrollment Snapshot of over 860 US higher education institutions, the total number of international students (enrolled and on OPT) grew by 4% in Fall 2021.
In addition, higher education institutions reported a 68 percent gain in the number of new overseas students enrolling for the first time at a US university in 2021/22, a “significant leap” from the 46 percent fall reported in Fall 2020.
According to the Open Doors report, 145,528 foreign students studied at their US institution for the first time in 2020/21, as predicted by last year’s snapshot poll.
In addition to this “surge” in student numbers, the report discovered that 99 percent of responding US institutions said they are holding classes in-person or implementing a hybrid education model, demonstrating an ongoing commitment to bringing students back to campus or offering online study options.
The Open Doors study, published by the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the Institute of International Education, also found that the Covid-19 epidemic had a negative impact on all places of origin and regions. However, some regions experienced greater reductions than others.
While both categories fell this year (by 14.8 percent and 13.2 percent, respectively), they did so at a slower rate than the average rate, “demonstrating the power and attraction of a US education in both nations.”
China and India remained the most significant markets for the United States. Students from the two nations accounted for 53% of all international students in the United States.
Following China and India, the top three countries of origin for international students in the United States were Kuwait (5.1 percent), Saudi Arabia (4.1 percent), and South Korea (2.9 percent ).
After that, US study abroad programmes shifted their focus to provide alternate modalities of study abroad, with data showing that 242 institutions reported providing online global learning experiences to over 10,400 students.