April 2005
The Critical Decline in International Graduate Student Enrollments
Until just a few years ago, international graduate students were enrolling at University of California campuses in ever-increasing numbers. In a recent and unwelcome reversal of that trend, UC has experienced a precipitous drop in its international graduate student population. The loss of this pool of talent not only hinders UC from fulfilling its missions in research and education, but also negatively impacts the California economy. As noted by the California Council on Science and Technology, “Inside the minds of our graduate students lie the next Intel, Genentech or Qualcomm…”(1) Given that 38 percent of international students stay and work in California after graduation, the importance of these students for innovative California companies cannot be over-emphasized. Even those international graduate students who return to their home countries provide a significant means of outreach and produce a highly desirable global presence for the University of California. Moreover, the presence of international graduate students adds a dimension of diversity to UC’s teaching endeavors that spans the hard sciences to the liberal arts.
Loss of International Graduate Students
In recent years, however, the ability of UC, as well as graduate schools across the country, to attract high-quality international graduate students has been in jeopardy. After a decade of steady increases in new international graduate student enrollments, a number of surveys are reporting declines in such enrollments. The Council of Graduate Schools recently reported a six percent fall in the numbers of first-time international graduate student enrollments from 2003 to 2004. This marks the third consecutive year of enrollment declines between six and ten percent. Not surprisingly, the number of international applicants to graduate schools also fell -- by 28 percent.(2) A similar survey noted that 65 percent of the doctoral/research institutions enrolling more than 2,500 international students reported declines in new international graduate student enrollments.(3) What is more, engineering and business are the fields of study hardest hit by these decreases. Forty percent of doctoral/research institutions reported declines in the total international graduate student enrollments (both new and continuing) in engineering programs, with only 18 percent reporting increases. Thirty-seven percent of business programs reported similar drops in international enrollment. Only biology departments reported increases, with other fields remaining more or less stable.
UC has not been immune from these losses. The UC Council of Graduate Deans reported to the Senate’s Coordinating Committee on Graduate Affairs (CCGA) that over the past year, UC has experienced a 20 percent drop in new international graduate student enrollments at the doctoral level systemwide, and there has been a 27 percent decline since 2000. While most of the UC campuses have suffered declines similar to the UC-wide average, a few campuses have been especially hard hit. For example, UC San Francisco and UC Los Angeles have experienced losses of 35 percent and 31 percent respectively in new international doctoral student enrollments.
The causes of these declines are multi-fold and in many cases mutually reinforcing. They include, but are not limited to, the logistical difficulties associated with post-9/11 governmental constraints on visas and immigration. Although many of the strict visa rules imposed after 9/11 have been somewhat relaxed in the last year, UC is still suffering the consequences. A 2004 UC Berkeley Visa Holders’ Survey reported that almost 60 percent of all UC Berkeley international graduate students experienced delays at either US consulates/embassies or US points-of-entry, and 59 percent of them had to alter their travel plans because of these delays. Perhaps most disconcerting is the fact that 41% of these graduate students reported that they had to alter their research plans because of visa problems.(4)
A formidable impediment to UC graduate study continues to be the large out-of-state tuition expenses that international graduate students face. These tuition fees, typically incurred in the first couple of years of study, remain a major issue that needs to be addressed if UC hopes to continue to attract the best graduate students. Indeed, from a purely financial perspective, the magnitude of these costs makes it often more cost-effective for UC researchers to hire a post-doctoral scholar rather than recruit a foreign student. Besides these out-of-state tuition costs, UC’s financial offers to incoming graduate students have lagged behind those of similar institutions. Two reports published by the Office of the President showed a UC graduate support gap of about $2,000 below that of the support packages offered by comparable institutions to doctoral applicants in 2001(5); but more importantly this gap has not significantly decreased in the intervening years between 2001 and 2004.(6)
While both US visa issues and financial difficulties contribute to the perception that this nation (and perhaps even UC) is no longer hospitable to foreign students, UC is also facing new international competition for graduate students by leading doctoral/research institutions around the world. For example, British, German, and Australian universities are increasingly becoming more attractive to top prospective graduate students. In 2002 (the most recent year in which comparable figures are available), foreign enrollments increased by 15 and 10 percent in Britain and Germany respectively. In order to attract graduate students, many foreign universities have made reforms to their university systems. German and Canadian universities recruit talented students in strategic disciplines, often subsidizing their education, and encourage them to settle in those countries after graduation. Australia treats graduate education as an industry, and although Australian universities charge foreign students full tuition, the costs are often lower than what these students would face at similar institutions in the US. Finally, countries like Singapore, India and China are sending high numbers of their graduate students abroad, in order to train them as future professors and researchers at their own universities. Experts believe that these countries represent the next wave of global competition for American universities.(7)
UC Response
The Academic Senate is committed to addressing these issues, and has ranked graduate education as a top funding priority for 2005-06. In keeping with that priority, the Academic Council has initiated state legislation in the form of a Concurrent Resolution on Graduate Education, which was passed by the Academic Assembly at its March 9, 2005 meeting. Specifically, the Resolution calls upon the California State Legislature and the Governor to join The UC Regents, President, and Faculty; the California State University’s Board of Trustees, Chancellors, and Faculty; California’s business and industry leaders in not only recognizing the importance of graduate education to California, but also supporting policies that will ensure California’s graduate education programs remain competitive for the very best students. The Chair of the Academic Senate, George Blumenthal, has briefed several key legislators on this resolution, and the leadership of the Senate is hopeful that it will be introduced in both houses of the Legislature this year.
One systemwide Senate committee that is especially concerned with the current state of affairs is the Coordinating Committee on Graduate Affairs (CCGA). Although generally known for approving new graduate programs, CCGA also plays a major role in addressing policies that affect UC graduate students. As such, the committee has devoted a substantial amount of discussion this year to addressing this issue. The current CCGA Chair, Professor Quentin Williams (UCSC), noted that "The Senate is exploring possible creative solutions to the ongoing financial and institutional problems associated with recruiting foreign students, including revisiting UC's policies on non-resident tuition for graduate teaching assistants and researchers, and providing centralized information for students with visa and immigration problems."
The Office of Student Financial Support in the Office of the President is also currently researching the causes of these recent declines in international graduate student enrollments at UC. They are interested in not only looking at the bigger international graduate education picture, but more importantly how widespread the problem is and which departments have been hit the hardest. Therefore, they are proposing a survey of selected department heads, which will help to see the problem from the perspective of those departments suffering the largest losses in international graduate student enrollments. The results of this survey will influence future UC policy.
UC’s prestige as a research institution rests in large part on a foundation of high quality graduate students, many of whom come from outside of the US. As evidenced by such initiatives as the Concurrent Resolution as well as other activities within the Office of the President, awareness about both the gravity of this issue as well as its immediacy is growing among top UC administrators. As CCGA Chair Williams sums up the situation: "If UC aspires to continue to recruit the best and brightest students in the world for graduate studies, then action must be taken now to redress the difficulties with recruitment of foreign graduate students: if the status quo continues, the UC of a decade from now will have lost a critical portion of both its academic excellence and its international presence and diversity."
-Todd Giedt
1 From “The Importance of Graduate Education to California and the University of California”. Presentation by UC Provost M.R.C. Greenwood, made to the UC Regents on January 19, 2005, (http://www.ucop.edu/planning/jan2005gradedpresentation_files/frame.htm).
2 “Council of Graduate Schools Finds Decline in New International Graduate Student Enrollment for the Third Consecutive Year”, Council of Graduate Schools (http://www.cgsnet.org/pdf/CGSFall2004EnrollmentSurveyPR.pdf).
3 “Survey of Foreign Student and Scholar Enrollment and Visa Trends for Fall”, NAFSA (http://www.nafsa.org/content/publicpolicy/forthemedia/enrollment_surveysummary.pdf). Conducted during the month of October 2004 jointly by NAFSA: Association of International Educators, the Association of American Universities (AAU), the National Association of State Universities and Land- Grant Colleges (NASULGC), the Institute of International Education (IIE), and the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS).
4 “Report on the UC Berkeley Visa Holders’ Survey, 2004”, UC Berkeley Graduate Division, USA Patriot Act Task Force, May 2004.
5 “Determining the Comparability of Graduate Student Support: Evidence from the 2001 Graduate Student Support Survey”, Office of the Associate Vice President, Student Academic Services and Student Financial Support, February 2002.
6 “Findings from the Graduate Student Support Survey: Trends in the Comparability of Graduate Student Stipends, 2001 and 2004”, Office of the Associate Vice President, Student Academic Services and Student Financial Support, October 2004.
7 “U.S. Slips in Attracting the World’s Best Students” by Sam Dillon. New York Times, December 12, 2004.