The education industry has been challenged with a decline in the number of international students enrolled in universities since the beginning of the fall semester, which is due to President Donald Trump’s new immigration policies.
The Institute of International Education reported that the number of new international students enrolled in U.S college campuses has declined an average of 7 percent for this fall semester, with 45 percent of campuses reporting a decrease in the number of international student enrollments.
The University of Oklahoma was not one of the colleges affected by the decline in enrollments, however, International Students Services fears that with the new immigration policies by Trump’s administration, the number of enrollments would change.
“We have noticed overall international student’s applications, and those students who are then enrolling, have dropped most significantly,” said Vianne Hinsdale, United World College assistant director. “You can see it especially in countries like China and India that were usually the countries with more enrollments.”
For Robert Bob Okello, junior student from Uganda and president of The United World, the loss of diversity on campus has been his main concern.
“International students bring diversity to campus in many ways – cultural, intellectual and experiential,” said Robert Bob. “This is something we can’t take lightly.”
For now, OU International Services is hoping the number of international students enrolling at OU is not affected by the new and upcoming policies of the Trump administration regarding immigration.
