Overview
- IIE’s Fall 2025 snapshot shows a 1% overall decline in international enrollment, with graduate numbers down 12% and undergraduate enrollment up 2%.
- Open Doors 2025 reports 1,177,766 international students in 2024/25, up 5% year over year and equal to 6% of U.S. higher education enrollment.
- Optional Practical Training expanded sharply to 294,253 participants in 2024/25, helping offset campus declines even as fewer new students arrived.
- Institutions report financial strain that is hitting unevenly, with steep drops at tuition-dependent campuses such as DePauw’s nearly 62% fall in international graduate students and Kent State’s $4 million in additional cuts.
- India remained the top source with 363,019 students in 2024/25 (up about 10%) as China fell to 265,919 (down 4%), while competitors like Germany and Canada stepped up recruitment and many U.S. colleges offered deferrals.