In its crusade against American universities, the Trump administration now appears intent on choking off incoming flows of international students—a group that has long driven scientific innovation in the United States and pumped tens of billions of dollars into the U.S. economy.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday that the Trump administration would “aggressively revoke” the visas of Chinese students, “including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.” Nearly one-quarter of all international students pursuing higher education in the United States come from China.
The announcement comes just one day after Rubio ordered U.S. embassies worldwide to temporarily stop scheduling new student visa interviews as it prepares to intensify vetting of applicants’ social media posts. Last week, the Trump administration also said that it would end Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students—more than a quarter of its student body—sparking a fierce legal battle that is now unfolding in the courts.
The moves amount to a sharp expansion of U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign to exert unprecedented influence over the country’s universities, and, in his own words, take back “our once-great educational institutions from the radical left.”
Trump has slashed or threatened hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding to universities, citing various grievances including alleged antisemitism on campus and so-called “woke” policies, such as efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.
His administration has moved to deport foreign-born students with ties to pro-Palestinian activism, and it revoked more than 1,500 student visas before abruptly reversing course after facing extensive legal pushback.
The White House’s latest measures go even further. By targeting international students at large, the Trump administration is attacking yet another key revenue stream for many universities. If Trump succeeds in his push, or if the policy chaos pushes prospective students to look elsewhere, experts warn that it’s the U.S. economy and American universities that will likely pay the price.
“It is going to hurt the bottom line of the universities, and it’s going to hurt the bottom line of the college towns that surround these universities,” said Gaurav Khanna, an economist at the University of California San Diego.
The United States is currently home to more than 1.1 million international students, more than half of whom come from India and China. During the 2023-2024 school year, international students are estimated to have poured almost $44 billion into the U.S. economy, according to NAFSA, a nonprofit association of international educators.
At the undergraduate level, China is the leading source of students: Around 1 in 4 undergraduate international students are Chinese. But for advanced degrees, it’s India that tops the charts. During the 2023-2024 school year, nearly 40 percent of international graduate students came from India.
International students’ undergraduate tuition fees have become an important source of income for many universities. That’s because compared to their U.S.-born counterparts, who often benefit from financial aid or lower in-state intuition, international students typically pay more to attend college in the United States. For dozens of schools, such students make up more than one-fifth of their entire student bodies.
“Almost all the international students pay sticker price” at private colleges and universities, said Morton Schapiro, a former president of both Northwestern University and Williams College. And at some public universities, international students’ sticker price is even higher than out-of-state tuition.
Most college students in the United States face a different outlook. In the 2019-2020 school year, for example, only around 16 percent of all students at private nonprofit four-year colleges—as well as roughly one-quarter of in-state students at public colleges—paid full price, according to a 2024 report by the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan Washington think tank.
International students are a particularly critical revenue stream for public research universities in the United States, where their tuition fees effectively cross-subsidize local students at those institutions, Khanna said. In the event that their enrollment numbers drop, U.S.-born students would be certain to feel the impact.
“The people that are in some ways going to be affected are local in-state students, who might see increases in tuition rates and reductions in instructional quality, instructional expenditure, or research expenditure,” Khanna said.
Even before Trump’s second presidential term, dynamics in international student enrollment were already shifting.
When Trump first took office in 2017, China was the top source of international students to the United States. But those numbers have dropped in the years since, while Indian student enrollment has skyrocketed.
“Chinese enrollment at U.S. universities for the first time really started falling, and it hasn’t recovered really,” Khanna said. “A lot of these Chinese students are getting diverted to other countries—the U.K., Australia, Canada—but a lot of them are also staying back in China, as China’s developed their own education system that’s really high quality.” Hong Kong and Singapore have also benefited, he said.
For China and many other foreign powers that have long been eager to recruit the United States’ top talent, Trump’s policies have created a new opening. As U.S. researchers reel from the Trump administration’s funding chaos and immigration uncertainty, Europe, China, and Canada are rolling out the welcome mat—fueling fears of a brain drain that may also trickle down to the undergraduate and graduate level.
Overseas universities are already making their pitches to the United States’ international students. Last week, after the Trump administration said it would terminate Harvard’s ability to enroll international students, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology extended an open invitation to impacted individuals.
“The university will provide unconditional offers, streamlined admission procedures, and academic support to facilitate a seamless transition for interested students,” the institution said in a statement.
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“The fact that the U.S. has such high quality universities—is that going to really outweigh the kind of uncertainty and the risk that students would be taking to come here?” Khanna said. “That’s going to really determine what happens to international student flows.”
As the world woos U.S. talent, some data suggests that prospective international students are already considering other options. StudyPortals, a private company based in the Netherlands that provides an online platform to compare international education options, reported that between January and March, its website experienced a 38 percent drop in global interest in U.S. master’s and Ph.D. programs.
If international students turn away from the United States in growing numbers, the impacts would extend beyond U.S. higher education. Khanna said that international students are an important pipeline into key high-skilled sectors, including technology, pharmaceuticals, and artificial intelligence.
“International students aren’t supplemental income; they’re essential scientific infrastructure for the United States,” said Chris Glass, an expert in higher education at Boston College.
“They enhance the culture, the diversity, and the vibrancy of our culture,” he added. “That’s actually a part of the creativity and the kind of innovative spirit of this country.”
Anusha Rathi contributed graphics research for this story.