Open Doors: Students in USA top one million, almost back to pre-Covid levels

International students in the USA: In the 2022/23 academic year, there were 1,057,188 international students at higher education institutions in the USA, a 12 per cent increase compared with the previous year and taking the country back above the one million student mark for the first time since 2019/20, when 1,075,496 students were enrolled.

It was the largest absolute growth in the history of the Open Doors data (108,669 students), and the biggest percentage increase in 40 years, said the Institute of International Education (IIE), compilers of the report.

“Over one million international students studying in the USA reflects a strong rebound, with the number approaching pre-pandemic levels. This reinforces that the USA remains the destination of choice for international students wishing to study abroad, as it has been for more than a century,” said Allan E. Goodman, IIE CEO. “The Open Doors 2023 Report emphasizes that international education is resilient and also integral to universities and countries looking to support global innovation, collaboration and peace.”

First-time students: The number of new international enrolments in 2022/23, meanwhile, reached a near-record level of 298,523, a 14 per cent jump compared with the previous academic year and comfortably surpassing the 267,712 new students in the pre-pandemic 2019/2020 year.

Academic level: There were increases at all academic levels in 2022/23, including a 21.3 per cent year-on-year growth in postgraduate students to an all-time high of 467,027 students.

Undergraduate students increased by 0.9 per cent to 347,602, the first growth for five years, while students on Optional Practical Training (OPT) post-study work jumped by 7.6 per cent to 198,793, and non-degree students rose by 28.2 per cent to 43,766.

Source markets: China remained the largest source country with 289,526 students, a 0.2 per cent decrease compared with the previous year, while India surged by 35 per cent to an all-time high of 268,923 students in 2022/23 – growth led by a substantial 63 per cent surge in postgraduate students.

The top five was completed by South Korea (43,847 students, +7.6 per cent); Canada (27,876, +3.2) and Vietnam (21,900, +5.7).

Aside from China and Saudi Arabia, all top 25 source markets increased and there were record highs for eight of those: Bangladesh, Colombia, Ghana, India, Italy, Nepal, Pakistan, and Spain.

Ghana entered the top 25 for the first time with 6,468 students and Sub-Saharan Africa was the region with the highest year-on-year growth.

Subject: Math and Computer Science was the most popular field of study, accounted by 240,230 students, a 19.9 per cent increase over 2021/22, followed by engineering (202,801 students, +7.8 per cent) and business and management (157,281, +6.8).

Host institutions: New York University remained the largest individual host institution with 24,496 students in 2022/23, followed by Northeastern University (20,637), Columbia University (19,001), Arizona State University (17,981) and the University of Southern California (17,264).

States: California was the largest host state of international students with 138,393 students, a 3.2 per cent increase compared with the previous year, followed by New York (126,782), Texas (80,757), Massachusetts (79,571) and Illinois (55,337). IIE said 48 states registered an increase in 2022/23.

Funding: The majority of students (56.8 per cent) were privately funded, while 19.7 per cent received a scholarship with a US college or university, 19 per cent were funded by their employer, and 2.2 per cent were backed by a scholarship from a foreign government or university.

Overall, international students accounted for 5.6 per cent of all higher education students in the USA, indicating plenty of capacity for future growth, the authors said.

Fall 2023 Snapshot – Further growth expected: Meanwhile, the Fall 2023 Snapshot on International Student Enrolment by IIE shows that the growth looks set to continue into the current 2023/24 academic year and beyond.

IIE surveyed 630 higher education institutions for the Snaphot – a subset of the full Open Doors report that represented 57 per cent of all international students enrolled in 2022/23.

Among those institutions surveyed, there was an eight per cent increase in international students indicated in the current 2023/24 academic year, with further increases across all academic levels.

Agent usage: At undergraduate level, 51 per cent of the institutions surveyed said they were using agents as part of their international student recruitment effort, and for postgraduate recruitment the figure (50 per cent) was similar, representing a slight increase over the previous year’s Snapshot.

The most common other recruitment methods cited were current international students (72 per cent at undergraduate level), in-person recruitment events (67), international partnerships (65), EducationUSA (54), online recruitment events (52), social media outreach (52) and alumni (46).

Recruitment plans: The vast majority of institutions surveyed (92 per cent) said that would like to grow their international student enrolments over the next five years, and said that they would need to hire additional staff, expand student housing and increase the number of majors offered to meet those aims. Eighty-five per cent of institutions said that they are committed the same budget or higher to international student recruitment in the current year.

India is the top priority recruitment market for institutions at both undergraduate (70 per cent prioritizing) and postgraduate (80 per cent) level.

For undergraduate study, Vietnam (66), China (53) and South Korea (53) are also priorities, while at postgraduate level, China (46), Vietnam (42) and Nigeria (40) are being prioritized.

Welcoming the Open Doors report, Assistant US Secretary of State Lee Satterfield said, “Students from around the world have chosen the United States as the top destination for international study. International education is a vehicle that promotes peace and cross-cultural connections and provides the tools necessary to address the shared challenges of our time. It continues to shape the leaders of the future, both here at home and abroad, and we look forward to doing even more to attract international students to the USA and serve as the global leader in international education.”