New international student enrolments at US universities dive, but China keeps its No 1 ranking

Name: US colleges face US$15 billion hit as Chinese students stay away amid coronavirus pandemic
Uploaded: 2021-11-15T05:02:10.000Z
Duration: 1 min 25 s
Description: US colleges face US$15 billion hit as Chinese students stay away amid coronavirus pandemic

New foreign student enrolments in 2020-21 dropped by about 46 per cent compared to 2019-20, according to Institute of International Education

The number of Chinese students at US institutions dropped for the first time, to about 317,000, but remains the largest segment

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Graduates of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs during commencement ceremonies in 2018. The number of new international students at US universities plummeted last year but Chinese students continued to outnumber any other group. Photo: Xinhua

Owen Churchill

Published: 1:02pm, 15 Nov 2021Updated: 11:29pm, 15 Nov 2021

The number of new international students at US universities last year plummeted to nearly half their pre-pandemic levels, but Chinese students continued to vastly outnumber any other group.

New foreign student enrolments during the 2020-21 year dropped by about 46 per cent compared to 2019-20, pulling the overall number of international students at US universities down by 15 per cent to some 914,000, according to a new government-funded study released Monday by the Institute of International Education (IIE).

While dropping for the first time in almost two decades, the number of mainland Chinese students at US higher education institutions still topped the rankings with some 317,000 individuals, even as Beijing complained of increasingly restrictive visa policies affecting Chinese applicants.

That was almost double the amount of students from India, the second-highest ranking country of origin.

The findings underscored the sweeping impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which upended higher education as it has most other sectors.

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US colleges face US$15 billion hit as Chinese students stay away amid coronavirus pandemic

According to Allan Goodman, the IIE chief executive, Covid-19 is the 12th pandemic to have occurred during the institute’s 100-year history. Goodman said that precedent suggested a swift rebound in enrolments would come as the pandemic lifts.

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