Crackdown on Foreign Students Hits Grad Schools Hardest, New Data Reveals

International student enrollment at U.S. colleges has been steadily rising in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, earlier this year, some experts predicted that growth would be stymied by increasing anti-immigrant sentiment and President Donald Trump’s new visa policies. 

Now nearing the end of the fall semester, it appears they may have been right. 

A snapshot of fall enrollment data from nearly 900 universities, published as part of the Open Doors 2025 report on international educational exchange, shows that institutions reported only a 1% decline in foreign enrollment this fall. That number is measured based on foreign enrollments in undergraduate, graduate and post-degree work experience (known as optional practical training or OPT) programs. The bulk of this fall’s enrollment decline came from graduate programs, which saw a significant 12% drop. Undergraduate enrollments increased by 2%, while OTP enrollment grew by 14%.

While a 1% decline may not sound extreme, the number is misleading on its own. During the pandemic, travel restrictions forced foreign enrollment numbers to nearly bottom out; the class of students that graduated this past May started school just as international enrollment began to pick back up post-pandemic, but the overall population was still so small that the class’s graduation doesn’t represent a significant loss in the foreign enrollment big picture. 

However, while international students matriculating in the United States overwhelmingly returned to universities this fall, new enrollments dropped by 17%. According to Mirka Martel, a research and learning lead at the Institute of International Education, which produces the Open Doors survey, this fall’s data could be “indicative of some of the more recent factors” affecting international students. 

Since Trump took office in January, he has restricted travel from 19 countries, paused student visa screening appointments for three weeks, attempted to limit the number of international students admitted to U.S. colleges and has revoked (and in some cases, reinstated) visas for some students already in the U.S. Because of those complications, Martel said a growing number of universities are offering admitted students deferrals for the spring or fall 2026 semesters. (That large number of deferrals could also be contributing to the 17% drop in new enrollees.) 

“This is the flexibility that a U.S. college or university might give to an international student who has been admitted but may not be able to make it to their campus for various reasons,” said Martel. “[Colleges] want these international students to make their way to the United States and to their campuses.” 

North Texas schools began bracing for dips in foreign enrollment, especially among graduate programs, last semester. 

The University of North Texas, the state’s most international university, with nearly 13,000 foreign-born students in the last school year, began planning for a $47.3 million loss in international tuition during budget talks over the summer. Because international students pay out-of-state tuition, they are an especially lucrative student population. Last school year saw 1,300 fewer international students enroll in UNT’s graduate programs, and this fall, the campus was expecting an additional 25% decline. 

“[The drop-off in enrollment] is not unusual for UNT. When I talk to colleagues across the state, this is part of a larger trend that we’re seeing now,” university President Harrison Keller told the board of regents over the summer.

The University of Texas at Arlington, Texas’ third-most international school, saw a drop of more than 900 international students this fall, according to The Shorthorn. Although the university’s foreign undergraduate population grew, the graduate programs saw 1,200 fewer international students enrolled — data consistent with the national picture presented in the Open Doors snapshot. 

Luisa Havens Gerardo, vice president for UTA’s Division of Enrollment Management, told the student newspaper that political pressures have made it impossible for the university to “have exactly the same goal around international students” as it did a year ago. 

The University of Texas at Dallas, the second-most international university in the state with more than 10,000 foreign-born students last year, has recorded three consecutive years of declining graduate student enrollment, according to The Retrograde, a student-run newspaper. Josephine Vitta, senior director of UTD’s International Center, said much of that decline is due to the smaller number of international students attending the university. Between fall 2024 and fall 2025, international student enrollment in the graduate college dropped from 1,500 to 500, the newspaper reported.