More international students are enrolled in the University of Illinois System this fall than previously, despite the Trump administration delaying visa appointments this summer.
The System announced Wednesday that international student enrollment increased 5.9% across the Springfield, Urbana-Champaign and Chicago universities. That bucks the trend seen elsewhere across the country.
U of I System President Tim Killeen said in an interview with The 21st Show that the most significant issue affecting international students at the three locations is visa delays.
“These are international students who have been accepted to our university. They need to get a visa. They need to get an interview in a consulate somewhere internationally. Those have been significantly delayed,” Killeen said.
Killeen said that 71 students across the three universities saw their visas revoked in the spring, but they were restored shortly afterwards. One person self-deported, according to Killeen.
The Trump administration paused and revamped the international student visa application process this summer to scrutinize students’ social media accounts more closely. President Donald Trump also stepped up screening social media during his previous term and the policy remained in place during the Biden administration.
The system also announced that the number of total students on the three campuses was 101,000, breaking previous records. In addition, the number of in-state undergraduate students is up 5.8%, for a total of 79.3% percent of undergraduates.
International undergrads up, grad students down at UIUC
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is the largest of the three locations and has the largest number of international students.
According to U of I data, the percentage of all students at UIUC with another country as their permanent address has decreased slightly from 24.9%last year to 24.2% this year.
That’s fueled primarily by a loss in international graduate students. The number of graduate students from other countries is down 5.7% compared to last year.
Meanwhile, international undergrads are up 7.3%.
“We have a longstanding history and momentum with that group. People talk when they’re having great experiences, and they tell their friends, and they tell their teachers, and you start getting these pockets of students,” said U of I Executive Director of Undergraduate Admissions Sara MacKenzie.
She said the graduate admissions process is completely different with different financial considerations.
UIUC is boasting more students overall this year than ever before, with slightly higher ACT and SAT scores than last year. The group also includes an increase in African American and Hispanic undergraduates, despite the end of race-based affirmative action.
MacKenzie said the admissions department does not have access to any information on race, so she is just learning these numbers. She also said she was pleased with the number of students from underrepresented counties in Illinois and the number of students who are part of the first generation in their family to attend college.
“We do see how the value of diversity and the value of international students and the Illinois mix gives our students a competitive edge in the workplace too, in the future.”
Updated 3 p.m. with information on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign enrollment numbers.