Foreign students are flocking to America in record numbers, putting pandemic-era concerns behind them as they rush to fill colleges and internships.
More than 1.1 million foreign students arrived during the 2023-24 academic year, up from 900,000 at the peak of the pandemic in 2020-21, the State Department announced Monday.
That works out to 6% of all U.S. college students, also an all-time high.
Of the students, 883,908 were enrolled in classes while 242,782 were here on what’s known as Optional Practical Training, a foreign student guest-worker program.
Combined, the students accounted for more than $50 billion in economic activity, the Biden administration said.
The numbers come as foreign students draw new scrutiny.
A Lehigh University student admitted this year that he faked his application, including fabricating his high school grades and bamboozling the State Department into approving his student visa. The Indian national also admitted to worming his way into a paid internship even though he wasn’t authorized to work in the U.S.
Experts say situations such as that could be widespread, given how much of the student visa system is left up to the schools and students to police the program.
The incentives are structured to make schools less than eager.
Foreign students often pay the full ride at schools compared with American students who get financial aid and, for public colleges and universities, enjoy significant in-state discounts.
The OPT program has questions of its own.
For one thing, Homeland Security data indicates that 500,000 students were authorized to participate in OPT in 2023.
“This has developed into a massive foreign worker program with minimal oversight,” said Jon Feere, a former senior official at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement who is now with the Center for Immigration Studies.
He said fraud is “quite significant” in the program.
According to the State Department, OPT had just 20,000 enrollees in 2000. It crossed the 100,000-person threshold under President Barack Obama, passed 200,000 in the 2017-18 school year, rose to more than 220,000 before the pandemic, dropped to 185,000 in 2021-22, then surged again.
It added about 44,000 people in the last school year alone.
NAFSA: Association of International Educators, which advocates for foreign student programs, said the U.S. should embrace more foreign students.
“The United States must adopt more proactive policies to attract and retain global talent. We cannot afford to lose international students’ meaningful, positive impact on American students’ global competence, our economies and our communities, particularly in the areas of STEM-related research and innovation,” said Fanta Aw, NAFSA’s executive director.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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