If President Donald Trump is looking for a way to curtail immigration excesses while dealing a blow to the left-wing higher education cabal, he need not look further than reforming the student visa program.
International students have been part of the American higher education system for decades with good reason. An education in the United States is a wonderful opportunity, which is a testament to the quality of education that U.S. institutions can provide. It is also good for American students, who have the opportunity to form relationships with and learn from foreign students.
But, as it is currently practiced, the admittance of international students to American colleges and universities, especially to the most prestigious institutions, has become less about cultural exchange and genuine education and more about bringing the institutions an easy and plentiful cashflow as native enrollment declines and fewer students are willing to pay the obscene prices of a college education.
Foreign students graduating from American universities will, in many cases, acquire an H-1B worker visa that allows them to fill a job that could otherwise be held by an American citizen.
Student visas have become a welfare program for elite universities, which are dominated by the political Left and have become havens for anti-American ideas. It is here that the worst excesses of terrorist sympathizers have been perpetrated, as last year’s pro-Hamas demonstrations and barracking of Jewish students showed. Many of the students most hostile to the nation quickly turn around and fill American jobs.
Institutional incentives
The primary benefit and motivation for a college or university to admit a student from a foreign country is financial. Most students from foreign countries interested in attending a public American university pay high out-of-state tuition rates.
Most native students receive some financial aid, without which they could not afford the tuition of $45,000 or more per year without taking on crippling debt. Most institutions have only limited money to aid foreign students.
So, native students end up paying perhaps $15,000 per year out of pocket, while international students will pay an additional $30,000. For every 100 international students a college enrolls, it secures roughly an additional $3 million. Every 1,000 international students is an additional $30 million. And so on.
Unsurprisingly, colleges have eagerly expanded outreach to foreign students.
In the 2006-2007 academic year, Harvard University enrolled 3,941 foreign students, roughly 20% of the whole student body. For the 2015-2016 academic year, it enrolled 4,961, 23% of all students. And for the 2023-2024 academic year, the number increased to 6,713, or 27% of the student body. The most represented nationality among international students is Chinese, which accounts for 20% of all international students at Harvard. Canada and India round out the top three at 11% and 9%, respectively.
In the same time frame, tuition at the school increased sharply. In 2015, tuition at Harvard was $40,418. By 2024, it was $54,269. The total cost of attending the school increased from $58,607 in 2015 to $79,450 in 2024.
The story is the same almost everywhere. At Arizona State University, a public institution, international students make up more than 15% of the student body, with the largest cohort coming from India. With 17,900 international students during the 2022-2023 school year, ASU has more foreign students than any other public university in the country. It is something the university brags about.
“We are proud that more and more international students are choosing ASU as their academic home,” Nancy Gonzales, the executive vice president and university provost at ASU, said in 2023. “Our global reputation for academic excellence is growing alongside our international enrollment. Students across the globe understand that an ASU degree provides our graduates with the tools and skills they need to make transformative contributions in the world.”
Tuition at ASU has increased sharply. In 2010-2011, out-of-state tuition was $20,592, while in-state tuition was $8,128. In 2022-2023, undergraduate in-state tuition had increased to $10,978, but out-of-state tuition had ballooned to $29,952. The total price for an international student to attend ASU in 2023 was $34,398, including extra fees foreign students pay for programs unique to them.
While the immigration status of students is unknown, it should be noted that ASU was among institutions that saw arrests of anti-Israel protesters disrupting campus activities in the spring 2024 term.
Reining in higher education
The Trump administration has indicated it intends to be aggressive in efforts to stamp out excesses in liberal higher education. Trump has already issued executive orders directing the federal government to end diversity, equity, and inclusion programs while scrutinizing similar programs in the private sector. With such programs plentiful in higher education, it is hardly a stretch to expect that colleges and universities will soon see their own DEI programs scrutinized.
But to deal a death blow to the higher education liberal cabal requires shutting the money spigot these institutions rely on. Curtailing the student visa program is one way to do that.
Capping the number of international students each institution is allowed to admit would protect Americans’ access to the universities their tax dollars fund. Nothing prevents a university from filling more and more slots, even every admission spot, with a foreign student, but guardrails should be installed to make certain it cannot happen and that more places are reserved for native students.
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Without a large contingent of international students paying excessive tuition rates, colleges will be forced to compete for American-born students who will benefit from a more level playing field. It might even force institutions to look for ways to cut costs, including by slashing their bloated corps of administrators, who are generally ideological bureaucrats eager to censor conservative thought and expression.
As a bonus, limiting student visas would also gut the H-1B visa program and ensure American-born college graduates are not forced to compete with foreigners in an increasingly competitive job market that incentivizes companies to hire H-1B visa holders as a form of indentured servitude.