Colleges reel as Trump-era visa curbs drive international students away

For decades, international students have been lifelines for US colleges, bringing in billions in tuition revenue and enriching campuses with global perspectives. But under the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration policies, that lifeline is fraying fast — and the financial strain is hitting hardest at smaller schools already operating on razor-thin margins.

At the University of Central Missouri, where international students once made up nearly a quarter of tuition revenue, classrooms are emptier this fall. Demand abroad remains strong, yet many students never made it past the visa process. Half as many international graduate students arrived on campus compared to last year.

“We aren’t able to subsidise domestic students as much when we have fewer international students who are bringing revenue to us,” said university president Roger Best. With an endowment of just $65 million, the school has little cushion to absorb such a blow. Cost-of-living raises have been scrapped, infrastructure upgrades delayed, and deeper cuts may follow.

The story is repeating nationwide. More than 100 US colleges with modest endowments rely on foreign students for 20% or more of their enrolment, according to an Associated Press analysis. These include small Christian institutions as well as major research universities like Carnegie Mellon and Northeastern. Forecasts warn of a drop in international enrolment of up to 40%, a collapse that could devastate budgets and ripple through the wider U.S. economy.

A climate of suspicion

The sharp decline is not driven by a lack of interest. Rather, it stems from heightened visa scrutiny, protracted interview backlogs, and a series of restrictive policies. The Trump administration has pressed colleges to rein in international admissions, ordered tougher vetting of social media, and moved to deport students engaged in pro-Palestinian activism.

In June, a travel ban covering 12 countries nearly kept Sudanese freshman Ahmed Ahmed from ever boarding a plane to the University of Rochester, despite his scholarship and valid visa. “I feel like I made it through, but I’m one of the last people to make it through,” said Ahmed, 19.

For many families, the risks and uncertainty now outweigh the appeal of a U.S. education — even when they can afford the high costs. Unlike domestic students, foreign students receive no federal aid and often pay full tuition, double or triple in-state rates. “If an international student comes in and pays $80,000 a year, that gives universities the flexibility to offer lower fees and more scholarship money to American students,” said George Mason University professor Justin Gest.

Vulnerable schools, hard choices

For small liberal arts and Christian colleges, where tuition accounts for the vast majority of revenue, the downturn is particularly dangerous. Lee University in Tennessee, which already raised tuition 20% over five years to offset shrinking enrolment, expects international numbers to fall again this fall — a hit its director of graduate studies admits will be hard to absorb.

“These strains only add to the distress for schools already on the financial brink,” said Dick Startz, an economics professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

With visa barriers rising and policy uncertainty deepening, many administrators fear the US is closing its doors to a generation of global talent — and in the process, undermining the very foundation of its higher education system.