International student enrollment numbers are a helpful metric by which to understand how attractive the U.S. looks to foreign-born scholars. Recent trends are troubling, suggesting that America is losing its appeal as the top destination for foreign-born students.
From 2006 to 2015, enrollment of foreign-born students increased every year, and were growing at an increasing rate, peaking at 119,262 new enrollments for the 2015-2016 school year. In 2016, however, that growth bottomed out, and new enrollments of foreign-born students fell for the first time in decades. In fact, the number of new enrollments has fallen each year for the past three years, reversing what had been a decade-long trend of growth for every degree type.