International students contribute record amount to U.S. economy
International students contribute record amount to U.S. economy
International students contributed a new record amount to the U.S. economy, almost $44 billion during the last academic year, according to data published by NAFSA: Association of International Educators. They figure the country’s 1.1 million international students are key to some 378,000 jobs. That’s through housing costs, tuition and fees, according to NAFSA CEO Fanta Aw.
“It’s not only just the faculty, and it’s not just the staff, it’s even the sort of the vendors that are part of university, in many ways, are being supported through that,” she said.
Roughly half of international students are from China or India — and many are grad students or recent graduates permitted to work on a student visa for a time after graduation.
Josephine Khamisi Vitta with University of Texas at Dallas said STEM is the big focus for their international students.
“We have most of them studying computer science, mathematics, engineering fields,” said Vitta.
She says over 80% of the school’s graduate students are international.
“They pay out of state, they pull the full cost without some of the discounting that our American students may be eligible for. They’re not eligible for financial aid,” Vitta said. “They’re literally transferring dollars from their home country into our country.”
Around 6% of all university students in the U.S. are international, according to the Institute of International Education. In other wealthy, English speaking countries that share is many times higher.
Stories You Might Like
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
