Decline of international students at Massachusetts universities having negative impact, expert says
The declining number of international students in Massachusetts poses a negative threat to the state's economy, a local expert said.
"It's surreal at the very least," said Jon Marcus, higher education editor of the nonprofit Hechinger Report, which focuses on current issues affecting education. "I'm not sure it's really dawned on all of us who live here, how much of an impact it will have on us, much more disproportionately than in the rest of the country."
He's talking about the declining number of international students attending Massachusetts colleges and universities, an existential threat to their business models that was developing even before the Trump administration began threatening to bar them.
Impacting financial aid
"Before Trump, there were really worrying trends around international higher education that universities and colleges, to be honest, didn't seem to be paying attention to," said Marcus. "The number of new international students who were starting through their four-year process was down in the fall before the election. And the places that students now want to come here from are not countries like Saudi Arabia, where they can afford to pay the full tuition, something on which colleges have been very dependent.
"They are coming from Latin America, South America, other parts of the world where they can't afford to pay the full tuition. So, in order to continue to recruit them, universities and colleges now need to shift some financial aid. This is cutting into the benefits - the financial benefits - to colleges of having these students," Marcus remarked.
International students' $4 billion economic impact
Another impact of this trend - fewer international students who are likely to stay here and build businesses.
"Our only natural resource is talent," noted Marcus. "There are more people in Massachusetts with graduate degrees who were born outside the country than who were born inside the country, and that's a really important source of talent for us in Massachusetts."
"International students are a $4 billion economic impact just in Massachusetts, and 36,000 jobs," Marcus pointed out. "Even a slow decline in that number is going to have an impact on all of us."
Marcus also discussed the sharp decline in public confidence in higher education and what these institutions can do to stave off the fallout. You can watch the entire interview here.
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