Universities and colleges in the USA have seen a slump in international admissions this year. Although the institutions had not seen a drop in applications, they have registered reduced enrolments from foreign nationals. 

Overseas students’ admissions to MBA programs in the US had witnessed a fourteen percent drop last year from previous years when international students had represented about forty percent enrolments, most of whom had paid one hundred percent tuition fees. 

University of Pennsylvania Wharton School has suffered significantly too. International admissions for its two-year program dipped from thirty percent for the 2021 class to nineteen percent for the 2022 class. 

University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business has seen its international admissions drop from twenty-seven percent for the class of 2021 to eighteen percent for the class of 2022. 

Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, ascribes the admission slide to travel restrictions from the pandemic and visa restrictions on countries such as China and Brazil. 

Why the dip in admissions?

Observers attribute the decline in admissions to:

• travel restrictions arising from the pandemic 
• hiked tuition fees
• US-China tensions affecting the political climate 
• changing immigration policies 
• snags in obtaining permanent residency
• visa restrictions on countries such as China and Brazil 
• reduced job opportunities in the USA
• students opting for deferrals of programs
• preference for in-person class over online class.

Who has garnered more admissions?

Imperial College Business, London has reported a fifty-five percent surge in the international applications for its September admissions, a good part of which came from Asia. 

Carringtoncrisp, the business-school consulting company, says that about fifty percent of the students surveyed preferred Canada for their degree this year, as against thirty-eight percent last year. 

Smith School of Business in Kingston, Queen’s University, Ontario, Canada, is another school that picked up more admissions this year. Their M.B.A. program associate director of recruitment and admissions, Teresa Pires, views difficulties in residency and job security as some reasons for the shift in location from Business schools in the USA. 

Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, admitted more students this year too. The vice-dean of M.B.A. programs, Joseph Milner, 

said that their domestic applications increased this year, probably because Canadian students preferred to stay closer to home during the pandemic. 

He also believed that overseas applications for the school’s 2021 admissions cycle were mounting as many students were inclined to view Canada’s guaranteed work permit favorably as against the student visa system in the USA.

The work permit in Canada authorizes international students to gain employment in any Canadian firm without a job offer during application. The same facility is not available in the US. 

The final word

US business schools consider enrolling overseas students crucial to their programs. Foreign nationals had accounted for over forty percent of admissions in 2019. 

As for students across the world, despite the recent drop in enrolments, the USA is still the students’ preferred location for graduation. There is still hope for programs in the US to pick up among international students. 

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