From Bowling Green State University to Youngstown State, universities across Ohio saw an uptick in enrollment this semester.
But one demographic was noticeably left out of the trend: international students.
At Cleveland State University, international student enrollment dropped 34% this semester. At Ohio State, first-year international student enrollment is down by about a third as well. And the University of Cincinnati has about 700 fewer international graduate students than last year.
“[International student enrollment] has dropped majorly in one year across the board,” said Zack Carreon, education reporter with Ohio Newsroom member station WVXU in Cincinnati.
He joined the Ohio Newsroom to explain the enrollment trends in higher education.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
On overall enrollment increases despite the “demographic cliff”
“We're seeing a lot of colleges here in Ohio invest in certain programs, like expanding business opportunities and adding degrees in AI and STEM, to attract more students. They're also adding certain incentives to draw more students in, so you see a lot of schools here adding in-state tuition rates for students in nearby states or giving students who meet a certain GPA threshold automatic admission to regional campuses. And pretty soon main campuses like Ohio University [in Athens], if you have a 3.0, you can get in on the main campus automatically and get some financial help as well. But certainly, that demographic cliff is still hanging over their head and there are still questions about the value of a college education.”
On the extent of declining international student enrollment
“It's dropped majorly in one year across the board. If you look at schools like Bowling Green State University and Cleveland State, they saw about a 30% drop in their international student populations. That's a pretty big chunk, but they do have smaller international student populations. I think where we're seeing the biggest hits are at Ohio State and UC. They have the largest international student populations. If you look at Ohio State, they saw a 37% decline in first-year international students this past year. And at UC, they had a sharp decline in international graduate students too, actually losing 700 this year. Most of those students are coming from India and China and going into areas of study like engineering, information technology and the sciences. So it's having a major impact on those areas of studies.”
On what’s driving the decline
“There was a drop in international student enrollment, of course, during COVID. But since then, schools have rebounded with international students. But now we're seeing a change in policy under the Trump administration. We heard about visa bans earlier this year, so obviously it's affecting students from those countries. But generally speaking, there was a pause in visa interviews earlier this year, which made it harder for people to finish completing their visa applications in time. Advocates for immigrants say these kinds of policies created unnecessary hurdles for a lot of people. And you hear the conversations around immigration that have been happening this year, with ICE raids and immigration enforcement. … Certainly, all of that together has contributed to this decline, because you can come to the United States, but there could be an issue with paperwork and then who knows what happens after that, so why risk it?”
On the financial impact of the decline
"It's going to hurt the universities financially, but also could have an impact on the region as a whole financially."Zack Carreon, WVXU education reporter
“There is going to be a hit as far as income from tuition. Oftentimes, international students and out-of-state students subsidize the tuition of in-state students because they're paying, in some cases, almost double. But really, you're going to see the impact on the local economy. At UC, that's 700 graduate students fewer than the previous year, so what that means is that's 700 fewer researchers and 700 fewer research projects. And oftentimes these international students will stay here and work in the region, work at local companies and start their own businesses. So it's going to hurt the universities financially, but also could have an impact on the region as a whole financially.”
