The results of a survey conducted by the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) found that applications to American graduate schools from foreign students are experiencing a decline.
The survey stated that, for the 2004-2005 academic year, nationwide graduate programs saw an average decrease of five percent in application volume from abroad. Although this is a less drastic cut in comparison to the 28 percent decrease in foreign applications for the 2003-2004 academic year, the steady decline is of concern to many American university administrators.
"If you compare [this year] to 2003, we clearly haven't recovered to the 2003 level of applications," CGS Director of Policy and Analysis Heath Brown said.
Brown said he attributed this "overall phenomena" of two straight years of decline to three factors.
First, changes with regard to foreign views of the United States since Sept. 11 have resulted in "negative sentiments of what life is like in the U.S.," he said.
Second, difficulties in acquiring student visas have also been brought to Brown's attention as a problem. Changes in the visa process with the establishment of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security partially contributed to these difficulties. But Brown said these issues have begun to be addressed and that "things graduate schools are doing and the things the federal government are doing to help students will continue."
The third and most important factor, Brown said, is increased competition from foreign graduate schools.
Worldwide, students used to have few options aside from the United States for graduate study. Today, this situation is changing in several countries, such as China, which has traditionally sent large numbers of students to American graduate school programs.
Tufts' graduate schools have experienced similar, though less severe declines in applications from foreign students. The Fletcher School saw an eight percent decline in foreign applications for the 2004-2005 academic year, and a 12 percent decline in this year's application process.
Fletcher School Director of Admissions Laurie Hurley said that Fletcher has "not had any problems with students obtaining visas ... However, there may be a perception out there that it is difficult to get a visa [due to past circumstances]."
Hurley also said she recognized the growing competition from European and Asian universities.
Despite the local and national declines, Hurley said that international applicants still compose one-third of the Fletcher applicant pool. The percentage of international students enrolled at the Fletcher School has also been fairly steady, Hurley said. Thirty-nine percent of the students in the 2004-2005 entering class are international.
Foreign applications to the Graduate School of Arts, Sciences and Engineering were down six percent last year and only one percent this year, according to Associate Director of Admissions Alida Poirier - statistics that are lower than the national trend as well.
The issue of foreign graduate school applications is not as strong with other graduate programs within the University. As American medical schools almost exclusively serve American students, the Tufts School of Medicine did not experience drastic changes in overseas applications.
Veterinary medicine is typically a field in undergraduate education in foreign universities, so the trends in foreign applications also did not apply to the Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine.
The fact that foreign applications dropped 23 percent lower this year than in the previous year is encouraging, Brown said, although he said it is too early to know if the rates of decline are beginning to level out.
"There is still a sense that the U.S. is getting a lot of quality students," he said, as there is, "no evidence of quality diminishing."
