Foreign Students Returned to US after tightened visa restriction due to covid

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International students are returning to the United States after a significant drop during the pandemic, according to the Open Doors 2022 Report on International Educational Exchange (IEE).

During a recent conversation with reporters, higher education officials said enrollment of international students increased almost 4% in the 2021-2022 academic year, from the year before, and almost 9% in the fall of 2022, from the year before. International student enrollment dropped 15% in the 2020-2021 school year.

Almost 1 million students came to the U.S. in the 2021-2022 academic year from more than 200 countries. Most of the increase is attributed to graduate students who had deferred their enrollment until they were able to come to the U.S. to study in person.

"Last year [2020-2021], you may remember that due to COVID-19, new enrollments dropped by 46 percent," according to Mirka Martel, director of research at the Institute of International Education (IIE). "Many international students at that time decided to defer their enrollment or pause their academic plans. This year [2021-2022], we saw that new enrollments soared 80 percent year over year to over 261,000 students. This brings new international student totals back to pre-pandemic levels, and it is notable that new enrollments increased across all academic levels."

The IEE survey featured 3,000 colleges and universities in all 50 states, and it is a collaboration between IIE and the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

"We have over 100 years of data on international student mobility to the United States. This data includes 12 pandemics and shows that educational exchanges occur even during them and grow rapidly afterwards," Allan Goodman, IIE's CEO, said, adding that the rebound matches historical precedent.