Michigan may lose millions as universities see drop in international students

International student enrollment is expected to drop as much as 40% nationwide
The drops come amid a US travel ban on more than a dozen countries and delays in issuing visas
Lower enrollment could mean a $230 million hit for the Michigan economy

Just as universities are wrestling with a host of pressures and funding-cut threats from the Trump administration, colleges are facing another major challenge as a new academic year begins.

International student enrollment is expected to decline by as much as 40% nationally this year, — sometimes significantly more — due to the Trump administration’s travel ban on 19 countries and heightened scrutiny on visas issuance to foreigners, including to students studying at US colleges and universities.

A new policy this spring also allows the State Department to vet an applicant’s social media accounts before issuing a visa, which has delayed the process for scores of students.

Nationwide, international student enrollment is expected to decline 30-40%, translating into a loss of $7 billion, including nearly $230 million in Michigan. Those figures include tuition and other spending by international students on college campuses and in communities, according to preliminary projections by two organizations supporting international students efforts, NAFSA: Association of International Educators and JB International.

Michigan is among the nation’s top 10 states for attracting international students.

To some, the policies leading to the expected drop goes beyond finances and is another assault directed at colleges and universities.

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US universities “have been viewed as the most progressive and advanced place in the world to study, to learn and do discovery,” said Oakland University President Ora Pescovitz. “The attack on international students has made it very unwelcoming for people to come.”

Though some colleges are working with international students to start their studies online or defer enrollment until January, some say they are not optimistic about the future for international students, who pay up to three times as much in tuition as domestic students, are an important graduate teaching resource and are being courted by universities around the world.

“If this continues, then it raises some really serious concerns about the ability for (American) colleges and universities to remain the top universities in the world,” said Rachel Banks, an East Lansing native who is now senior director, public policy and legislative strategy at NAFSA: Association of International Educators in Washington.

Federal changes

The expected drop in international students comes after President Donald Trump took office in January and issued executive orders impacting universities, including a directive to schools to cut diversity initiatives or risk federal funding loss; federal departments warning universities that they’ll take enforcement action if Jewish students are not protected on campus and research cuts to universities, including $1.75 billion to 20 Michigan universities, according to an analysis last spring by Research Universities for Michigan.

Last spring, the US State Department abruptly revoked the legal status of dozens of international students. The administration has revoked more than 6,000 student visas this year, according to published reports, alleging that some students had overstayed their visas or violated US law.

“There have been a handful of cases where a student may have had their visa revoked … for a cause,” like a DUI, said Banks. “The terminations that we saw in the spring, at that level, we’ve never seen.”

International students stand next to each other while laughing a the campus of University of Michigan Dearborn. — (From left) Jinan Khanafer, of Lebanon, Mina Hanna, of Egypt, and Kristen Nakajubi, of Uganda, laugh while doing a country flag guessing game at the African student union table during the first day of welcome week on the campus of University of Michigan Dearborn. (Josh Boland for Bridge Michigan)

There were more than 1.1 million international students in the US in 2023-24, including 38,000 in Michigan, according to Open Doors, an annual report tracking international students published by the Institute of International Education and sponsored by the State Department.

Among the leading state institutions hosting international students, mostly from India and China, are University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Central University and Wayne State University.

It’s still too soon in the semester for colleges to know exactly how many new international students won’t enroll this fall, but many officials expect it will impact overall enrollment.

At CMU, where 1,670 international students were among the 14,500 students enrolled last year, the college has recruited 500-600 new international students every year. But CMU is bracing for a drop of about 400 students, or 70%, from where the college was a year ago, said Jennifer DeHaemers, CMU vice president of student recruitment and retention.

“That’s a pretty big decrease in the number of students we would be expecting to show up,” said DeHaemers.

Students are getting their social media questioned about affiliations they may have in their home countries and whether they have interest in becoming politically involved in the U.S., said DeHaemers.

“They are just getting a higher level of scrutiny beyond, ‘What do are you planning to study, at what institution and are you planning to come home?’” DeHaemers said. “It’s very unfortunate for American higher education and CMU. Our international students make the experience here more rich because they share their culture with us, they tend to be good students and … they add to the economic development in the country. It will be a big loss in a number of different ways.”

And there will be less money into the community beyond tuition since they pay for off-campus rentals, food, entertainment and more.

“It’s just a loss on a lot of different levels,” DeHaemers said.

U-M in Ann Arbor is one of the top institutions in the US to host international students, with 11,766 in 2023-24.

But even U-M Dearborn, home to 783 international students, has been preparing for a potential 40% drop by supporting new international students until they get their visas potentially by next semester.

Interim Chancellor of the University of Michigan Dearborn Gabriella Scarlatta speaks during the Wolverine Welcome ceremony at U-M Dearborn in late August. (Josh Boland for Bridge Michigan)

“We’re also concentrating on the domestic population,” said U-M Dearborn interim Chancellor Gabriella Scarlatta. “We’re up slightly in undergraduates (enrollment), so that is going to mitigate the drop in international students.”

“But it’s really not just a financial hit,” said Scarlatta, who was an international student who came from Italy to earn her Ph.D from Wayne State. “Our campus is not going to be as rich without international students … who bring a wealth of culture to our students.”