American college campuses are buzzing with the familiar routine of students getting settled in classes and dorms.
One new trend, though, is emerging.
An estimated 30% to 40% fewer international students are expected on American college campuses this academic year, compared with trends in 2024-2025, according to NAFSA: Association of International Educators – a nonprofit that focuses on international education – and JB International, a for-profit educational technology firm.
In total, an estimated 150,000 fewer international students were expected to arrive this fall, due to new visa restrictions and visa appointments being canceled at U.S. embassies and consulates in many countries.
There were over 1.1 million international students on American college campuses in the 2023-2024 academic year, according to the Institute for International Education, which monitors foreign student programs.
This sharp drop in international students could cost the U.S. economy $7 billion in the 2025-26 school year, according to estimates from NAFSA or the National Association for Foreign Student Affairs.
For every three international students in the U.S., one new American job is created or supported by the average $35,000 these students spend in their local communities.
I foresee a major economic crisis over international students that could last for years.
International student enrollment in the U.S. had steadily risen since the end of World War II. While 26,000 foreign students came to the U.S. in the 1949–1950 school year, that number had ballooned to 286,343 three decades later.
In the 1990s, there were more than 400,000 international students attending school in the U.S. each year. That number continued to climb and surpassed 500,000 in the early 2000s.
International student enrollment in the U.S. first topped more than 1 million in the 2015-2016 school year.
While international students made up just 1% of the 2.4 million university and college students in the U.S. in 1949-50, they were about 6% of the total 18.9 million students in the U.S. in 2023-24, according to the Migration Institute, a nonpartisan research organization.
This percentage is relatively small, however, compared with the international student representation in other countries.
International students represented 38% of overall Canadian university enrollment, made up 31% of all university students in Australia and 27% of all students in the United Kingdom during the 2024-2025 school year.
Within the first 90 days of his return to office, President Donald Trump invoked the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act, which gives the secretary of state the authority to expel foreign students whose behavior could pose a threat to U.S. foreign policy interests.
The administration has since revoked the visas of 6,000 foreign students, the State Department reported in August.
The administration has announced other changes that will make it more difficult for foreign students to spend time in the U.S. – such as a 2025 travel ban that prohibits or restricts the entry of people from 19 countries, mostly in the Middle East and Africa.
The administration also announced in August that it plans to cap the length of time foreign students can stay in the U.S. to four years. Currently, foreign students have a 60-day grace period to stay in the U.S. following graduation, before they must secure a work visa or another kind of authorization to legally stay in the country.
International students are not concentrated in just major, liberal cities.
Arizona State University hosted the fourth-highest number of international students that school year, and Purdue University in Indiana and the University of North Texas are also among the 10 schools that host the total most international students.
All of these schools – and others, such as Kansas City colleges and universities, which are now welcoming far fewer international students than they planned to in the spring because some of the students could not get visas – will feel the financial effects of turning international students away from the U.S.
Doing the math, I believe that a solid argument can be made for increasing the number of foreign students coming to the U.S., not cutting back.
Tara Sonenshine is the Edward R. Murrow Professor of Practice in Public Diplomacy at Tufts University. Distributed by The Conversation and The Associated Press.
