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- Interesting Reads This Week
Interesting Reads This Week
Things that foster learning, and things that don't
Glenda Morgan
April 26, 2025
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We’re deep into Executive Order season, or, as we call it here in the mountains, Spring. But aside from the EOs, what did I read this week?
Circling the brain drain
International student flows don’t have much to do with EdTech directly, but they have a big impact on the broader higher education context in which EdTech operates. They significantly affect university finances, influence enrollment trends, and provide a crucial source of course instructors and teaching assistants, especially at the graduate level. For that reason, I’ve been closely following developments in Canada, the UK, and Australia, where governments have taken steps to limit the number of international students.
Today, though, I want to focus on the US. International students have been in the news a lot recently, with threats to revoke Harvard’s ability to admit international students and visa revocations, though the government has since softened its stance.
This week, I came across two excellent pieces that offered deeper context on the impact of these changes, both on international student flows to the U.S. and on the broader consequences of a potential decline.
In Distributed Progress (a must-read if you're interested in international student issues), Gary Glass tracks the recent falloff in international student interest in the U.S. He notes that while some of the decline predates the Trump administration, the recent drop has been significant, with a loss of 130,000 students from March 2024 to March 2025. Overall, there has been a 38% decline in international demand for U.S. graduate degrees from January to March of this year.
Glass explains that the reasons for this decline are multifaceted.
1. Visa Denials: Visa denials surged to 41% in 2024, up from 15% a decade ago. Research demonstrates a "chilling effect”– for every 10% increase in the F-1 visa refusal rate, there is a 12% decrease in new international enrollment.
2. Policy Uncertainty: Talk of new travel restrictions, 1,600+ visa revocations (likely even higher), and promises of “extreme vetting”.
3. Affordability: Fluctuating currencies and tariff uncertainty make American tuition (and its expensive cities) an increasingly unpredictable financial gamble.
4. Better Alternatives: Other countries offer high-quality, more affordable education with clearer pathways to work and residency, while the US policymakers consider whether to end or scale back Optional Practical Training (OPT).
5. Safety Concerns: Headlines about gun violence and xenophobia permeate the social media advice groups that international students rely on to make decisions on whether to study in the US.
To this, I would add the impact of federal grant cancellations, which are likely to significantly affect international student numbers—particularly in STEM fields, where many international students find positions in research labs.
