Number of Foreign Graduate Students Admitted to Top US Research Institutions in Marked Declined. (September 16, 2004)

    The Journal Nature reports that data released on September 7^th by the US Council of Graduate Schools shows that foreign graduate student enrollments have declined precipitously this year. The council surveyed 126 institutions, including leading private and public research universities in the United States.

The survey shows a 19% decrease in the number of foreign students admitted to graduate programmes in the life sciences and a 17% drop in admissions in the physical and Earth sciences. And Nature points out that "admissions from China, India and South Korea, which between them provide the lion's share of foreign graduate students in the United States, were all down sharply." (see chart)

Heath Brown, director of research and policy analysis at the Council of Graduate Schools, emphasised that the survey measures the actual number of students admitted to US schools, not the number of applications received, and is concrete evidence that fewer foreign graduate students are coming this year.

Brown also drew attention to the tough economic conditions in some US states, such as California, which have contributed to overall reductions in the number of domestic graduate students admitted to public universities. Their enrolment is down by 5%. Significant, but far less than international enrolment decline.

How much Australia might have benefited from the Bush Administration's zealous policies on foreign graduate student scrutiny is a moot question but The Trade Weighted Index, Foreign Student Enrolments and a Vice-Chancellor's Prediction would seem to have at least some bearing.