Education Policy, Business and Technology

International High School Students Represent Opportunity

THE Journal: The growth in the number of international students coming to study in the United States hasn't just slowed in higher education. The current administration's efforts to more tightly control visa issuance has also slowed growth in the count of students from outside the country attending high school. Between 2004 and 2016, the number more than tripled to almost 82,000. However, according to a new report by the Institute of International Education (IIE), "the rate of growth has gotten smaller more recently." IIE's "Globally Mobile Youth: Trends in International Secondary Students in the United States, 2013-2016," reported that "diploma-seeking" international students dominate visa acquisition at the secondary level. In 2016 72 percent of those students had F-1 visas, signifying that they intended to earn a U.S. high school diploma, while the remainder had J-1 visas, designating their status as exchange students in shorter-term programs. According to the report, most of the international students attending high school in this country ultimately expect to enroll in higher education here as well and view their U.S. studies as a leg up on gaining acceptance to the colleges and universities they want to attend.

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