“This is the first time we’ve seen declines across two consecutive years, and while we think it’s too soon to consider this a trend, it is troubling,” Suzanne Ortega, president of CGS, said in a statement. “We continue to monitor issues, including changes in immigration and visa policy, with growing concern over the possible negative impact to the U.S.’s image as a welcoming destination for international students and scholars.”

International graduate enrollment and applications have declined for the second year in a row, according to a new report from the Council of Graduate Schools.

The slump shows that President Trump's travel ban and changes in visa policies may have an impact on international applications and first-time enrollment, leading to a "troubling" downhill trend, said Suzanne T. Ortega, president of the council, in a news release. In the fall of 2018, the final application count for prospective international graduate students declined by 4 percent, bringing the overall decline to 6 percent over the past two years, according to the report. First-time graduate-student enrollment declined by 1 percent, making for a total 2-percent drop since 2017.

Applications and first-time enrolments by foreign students to postgraduate courses in North America have fallen for the second straight year, in a“troubling” shift, the institutions said.

The applications from prospective international students shrank 4 per cent, and first-time enrolments fell 1 per cent, said the Council of Graduate Schools, which represents some 500 universities, mostly in the US and Canada.

Contact: Katherine Hazelrigg  (202) 461-3888 / khazelrigg@cgs.nche.edu

Master’s and Certificate Programs Remain Most Affected

Washington, DC —New data from the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) reveal that for the second consecutive year, international graduate application and first-time enrollment rates declined at U.S. universities. For Fall 2018, the final application counts from prospective international students declined by 4%, while the first-time enrollment of international graduate students declined by 1%.

The overall decline is primarily driven by a 6% decrease in applications and a 2% decrease in first-time enrollment to master’s and certificate programs. In contrast, first-time international doctoral enrollment grew by 3%. The discrepancy by degree objective is notable given the proportion of first-time international graduate enrollment in master’s and certificate programs (77%) vs. doctoral programs (23%).

 “This is the first time we’ve seen declines across two consecutive years, and while we think it’s too soon to consider this a trend, it is troubling,” said CGS President Suzanne Ortega. “We continue to monitor issues, including changes in immigration and visa policy, with growing concern over the possible negative impact to the U.S.’s image as a welcoming destination for international students and scholars.”

Highlights by Country of Origin

China and India continue to represent the largest shares of international graduate applications, first-time international graduate enrollment, and total international graduate enrollment. However, the final application and first-time graduate enrollment of Indian students experienced large decreases again (-12%, -2% respectively) during the Fall 2017 to Fall 2018 admission cycle. This is the second consecutive year the number of applications and first-time enrollment from India has declined.

Graduate applications from Middle Eastern & North African students to U.S. graduate schools fell by 14% between the Fall 2017 and Fall 2018 admission cycles. Graduate applications and first-time enrollment of Iranian (-27%, -8%) and Saudi Arabian (-6%, -21%) graduate students also decreased. Conversely, applications and first-time enrollment of Sub-Saharan African graduate students increased by 28% and 5% respectively.

Ortega noted that overall, admission yield rates are comparable to last year. “This suggests that prospective international graduate students remain highly likely to accept offers of admission to U.S. graduate schools.”

Highlights by Field of Study

Across broad fields of study, international graduate applications increased in health sciences (5%), mathematics and computer sciences (6%), and other fields (8%) between Fall 2017 to Fall 2018. By contrast, engineering (-16%), physical & earth sciences (-9%), and business (-8%) experienced decreases in international graduate applications during this period. Business (95%), public administration & services (86%), and mathematics & computer sciences (85%) had high concentrations of first-time international students in master’s and certificate programs in Fall 2018, while first-time doctoral students accounted for 77% of international graduate students in physical & earth sciences and 50% in biological & agricultural sciences.

About the survey and report

Conducted since 2004, the CGS International Graduate Admissions Survey tracks the applications and enrollments of international students seeking U.S. master’s and doctoral degrees. As the only report of its kind to offer data on the current academic year, International Graduate Applications and Enrollment: Fall 2018 reports applications, admissions, and enrollments of international master’s, certificate, and doctoral students at U.S. colleges and universities. In Fall 2016 the survey was redesigned to collect data by degree objective (master’s and graduate certificate vs. doctorate), and for all seven regions of origin, eight countries of origin, and all eleven broad fields of study, yielding the only degree-level data currently available for graduate admissions and enrollments. 369 U.S. graduate institutions who are members of CGS or its regional affiliates responded to the 2018 survey.

# # #

According to the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), women earned 53% of all doctorates—a total of 41,717 degrees—during the 2016–2017 academic year. The CGS study found that first-time doctoral program enrollment among females was 27.3% in Engineering and 27.8% in Mathematics/Computer Sciences, while doctoral degrees awarded to women in these fields were 23.4% and 25.1%, respectively.

The Council of Graduate Schools conducted surveys last year on the career aspirations of current Ph.D. students and Ph.D.-program graduates. They found that the products of a humanities doctoral program have far lower career diversity than do other fields: 56 percent are “teaching at the postsecondary level as their principal job.”

Imagine, Maureen McCarthy asked a room full of faculty members, if you could know where all of the Ph.D. graduates from your program are working, right now.

Not only that, she told a packed session at the annual Modern Language Association conference here in Chicago. Imagine if you could know how satisfied they are with the training they'd received in their Ph.D. program. Imagine if you could know if they'd do it again, and why.

Until recently, that type of data was hard to come by, said McCarthy, the director of best practices at the Council of Graduate Schools. The council conducted two surveys last year — one geared toward current Ph.D. students and their career aspirations, one geared toward Ph.D.-program graduates — to fill in those gaps.

Reports from the US Council of Graduate Schools in Washington DC and the Institute of International Education in New York City found that international graduate-student enrolment in US institutions is falling.

And yet according to some data that I recently discovered from several sources, there might not be such a shortage of women in STEM after all, at least overall. In fact, according to several measures, women are actually slightly over-represented in STEM graduate programs and earn a majority of STEM college degrees.

Perry took data from the Council of Graduate Schools and included its “Health and Medical Sciences” classification as a STEM field. Doing so found that 50.6% of grad students enrolled in STEM programs in 2017 were women, even though women were only the majority of enrollees in two classifications: “Biological and Agricultural Sciences” and “Health and Medical Sciences.” Still, far more women were enrolled in health sciences than either sex in any of the other fields.