Enrollments on the Upswing

FOREIGN STUDENTS

IN THE AFTERMATH of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the United States tightened foreign student visa requirements. The predictable result: Foreign enrollments at U.S. universities fell. Visa regulations have since eased, and recent surveys indicate that foreign student enrollments are on the mend. According to the Council of Graduate Schools, its 475 members report that enrollment of foreigners increased 1 percent this school year, reversing three years of declines. New student numbers are up an impressive 12 percent. Council President Debra W. Stewart credits both better government policies and more outreach by grad schools, and she's "optimistic that this encouraging trend will continue." What's more, first-year engineering student enrollments jumped 22 percent, and total engineering enrollments were up 3 percent. Nearly half of the engineering and science grad students at U.S. schools are foreign-born, and American industry worries that if foreign students study elsewhere, key technical and research jobs could be harder to fill. The number of firstyear engineering students from India leaped 32 percent, while the total number of engineering students from India was up 8 percent. First-year engineering students from China increased their numbers 20 percent, but overall enrollments of Chinese engineering students were down 2 percent. Meanwhile, the Institute of International Education says the total number of new foreign students studying in the United States increased 8 percent this past fall, to 142,923, after several years of declines. The total number of all students from abroad studying in the United States was 564,766, only marginally less than 2004-05. It also found the U.S. State Department issued 591,050 student and exchange visas in the year ending September 2005-a record number and a 14 percent increase over the previous year. The Institute predicts "that overall enrollments are likely to rebound." It also says that U.S. students were heading overseas to study in record numbers. Nearly 206,000 studied abroad in 2004-05, an 8 percent increase over 2003-04. Schools like Harvard and Yale are for the first time promoting overseas study, and universities with long-standing overseas programs are expanding them. Most American students head to western Europe, particularly the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain and France. But nearly 6,400 U.S. students studied in China last year, a huge 35 percent increase over the preceding year. That's another clear indication that Chinese universities are growing in stature. -THOMAS K. GROSE

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