Newshot 
International students earn almost 40% of science and engineering PhDs awarded in the United States.Credit: Bill Pugliano/Getty
The number of international students arriving in the United States in August for the start of the academic year has fallen by 28% since 2024, reaching the lowest level since the depths reached in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Data from the federal National Travel and Tourism Office show that the number of incoming student-visa holders fell from 387,000 in August 2024 to 277,000 in August 2026 (see ‘Students stay away’). The trend has been driven by a decline in students from India and China, whose numbers dropped by about 50,000 and 23,000, respectively, from 2024 to 2026.
Source: National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO); Nature analysis.
The number of applications from international students to US PhD programmes also declined over the past year, falling 21% from 2025 to 2026, according to a survey of 55 members of the Association of American Universities (AAU), a coalition of research-intensive schools.
These decreases are squeezing already strained university budgets, and researchers worry about the impact on US science. “I can’t imagine a more effective way for the US to cede its dominance in critical scientific fields to China and Europe than by reducing international students,” says Nigel Goldenfeld, a physicist at the University of California, San Diego. In 2024, international students earned 38% of the science and engineering PhDs awarded in the United States.
The great university shake-up: four charts show how global higher education is changing
The administration of US president Donald Trump has introduced several restrictions on visas and international travel since Trump took office in early 2025. Last month, the administration also attempted to place a US$100,000 levy on science and engineering students enrolling in extended Optional Practical Training (OPT), a work programme used by hundreds of thousands of recent graduates that is the largest pipeline of scientific talent into the United States. The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which issued the proposal, stated that it is meant to “combat fraud, strengthen the integrity of the immigration system, and protect U.S. workers”.
Federal judges have suspended the OPT charge and other efforts that the administration made to curb immigration. But higher-education specialists link these attempts to the large decrease in new overseas students, who, they say, can no longer count a US education as a stable investment. “Uncertainty has become policy, and that has registered in the hearts and minds of students,” says Chris Glass, a higher-education researcher at Boston College in Massachusetts.
The United Kingdom, Canada and Australia have also seen drops in enrolment of international students after placing new limits on these populations. But the US policies are especially restrictive, Glass says.
A spokesperson for the White House did not respond to Nature’s request for comment.
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