That article is full of pure nonsense.
Was there a competition for “how many hyperbolic, inaccurate, and ridiculous statements can you put in a single article and still get it published”?
People have NEVER gone to American universities because of “America’s reputation”. That is something that the author seems to have imagined. People come because of the reputation of America’s universities, and because, for many students in India and China, it is often easier to be accepted to a top university in the USA than to a top university in India or China. The reputation of America’s universities hasn’t changed. The fact that applications have increased is evidence of this.
We had a very small drop in enrollment of international students in 2019 because it was more difficult to get visas under Trump, and fewer also applied due to an expectation of rejection. But this was really small.
The big drop was all because of this little thing called “a PANDEMIC” which the author seems to have missed. COVID reduced travel, and also made it difficult for international students to come here. That is why the number of USA students abroad dropped by 50%, from 347,099 students to 162,633, while the number of international students dropped by 15%, from 1,075,496 to 914,095. A quick calculations shows that 161,401 fewer international students enrolled in the USA, while, in turn, 184,466 more domestic students enrolled in the USA instead of overseas.
I don’t know, but that really does not look like a “brain drain” to me.
Also, with 914, 095 international students coming, and only 162,633 American students going away, it looks to me like we have a brain import machine here.
The USA is STILL attracting more international students than, say, the EU. There were, in 2021, over 914,000 international students attending USA universities. At the same time, around 728,000 non-European students were studying in the EU.
In 2020, the USA got around 610,000 students from Asia, while only 325,000 attended EU universities.
The EU is, in fact, larger than the USA, though they’re older - the EU has about 30% more people than the USA, but has around 6% fewer students in tertiary institutions. The USA has around 5% of its students population from outside of the USA, while the EU has around 4% from outside Europe.
Applications from international students actually went up by around 18% in the last year, even though enrollment is still lower than it was in 2020.
The idea that people are moving massively from USA to Europe is false, because they couldn’t go there even if they wanted. Residency and citizenship in most European countries are very difficult to attain. At least for counties to which people want to move. I don’t see people massively flowing to Romania or Bulgaria (which is actually a nice place).
Basically, for him, a 17% drop in foreign students is “plummeting”, but a 50% drop in USA students in Europe is not something that happened.
Hyperbole, hyperbole, hyperbole.
He claims that enrollment is plunging “like never before”, and quoting an article which says largest decline in a decade". In a decade is not actually “ever before”. To quote the article itself: “That one-year decline of 3.5% is the largest spring semester enrollment decrease since 2011” I guess that the author doesn’t know what happened in the USA before 2015 or something.
So many other gems.
PS. we are now also recipients of many smart people from Russia, so there’s that.
