US physics PhD programs see drop in international applications

The number of international students applying to select US physics PhD programs fell by an average of 12% from 2017 to 2018, according to a new survey conducted by the American Physical Society.

The findings follow reports of drops in international student applications and first-time enrollment at other US graduate programs, including STEM programs. Though there may not be a single explanation for the declines, some educational institutions have cited recent immigration policy changes and the current US political environment with respect to international visitors as contributing factors. Increased global competition for international students is another possible contributor.

APS decided to conduct the survey after hearing about large drops in the number of applications at the society’s annual meeting in March, says Francis Slakey, APS chief government affairs officer. The survey went out in April to department chairs of 74 US physics PhD programs that graduate 10 or more students per year. Institutions were asked to report the number of international applications they received for fall 2017 and fall 2018.

A total of 49 institutions responded—15 private and 34 public. Thirteen institutions reported application decreases greater than 20%. Only seven programs reported increases. The full survey is confidential, but APS has shared some summary statistics. (APS is a member society of AIP, the American Institute of Physics, which publishes Physics Today.) “As the results came in, we realized that the problem was widespread,” Slakey says. “I checked with colleagues from other professional societies and found that they were seeing similar alarming drops.”

Larger programs, as measured by the number of graduate students who apply, reported significantly smaller decreases. Programs that received more than 200 international applications in 2017 saw an average 6% decrease, whereas those receiving fewer than 100 international applications in 2017 observed an average 20% decrease. Not all responding institutions reported the total number of applicants.

The drop in applications received doesn’t necessarily mean that international enrollment levels will do the same. US physics PhD programs have had relatively stable international first-time enrollment rates since 2005, according to the AIP Statistical Research Center. International student enrollment in US physics PhD programs steadily increased in the 1970s through the early 1990s. After a slight dip in the mid 1990s, it continued to grow again until it outnumbered domestic student enrollment from 1997 to 2001. Then international enrollment of first-year students dropped 13% from 2000 to 2004. The AIP researchers observed that following the 11 September 2001 attacks, a higher number of programs reported international students having difficulties securing visas, which may have contributed to the decline in enrollment during that time.

Data on the number of applications over time are not available for physics PhD programs. But a recent report from the Council of Graduate Schools found that both international applications and first-time enrollment rates for US graduate programs in all subjects fell slightly in 2017, the first time that has happened since the council began collecting data in 2004. However, the report notes that the extent of the declines varies among programs. Non-PhD programs and doctoral institutions not classified as “high research activity” were the most strongly impacted. By contrast, first-time enrollment in doctoral programs grew by 1.8% among all institutions in 2017.

The international application declines come at a time when President Trump has been pushing for changes in US immigration policies. The State Department is working to intensify its vetting of visa applications, which science and education groups have warned would cause lengthy processing times and discourage students from seeking to come to the US.

A recent survey of more than 500 higher education institutions from the Institute of International Education found that visa concerns, the current US social and political climate, and global competition were cited among the main reasons for declining international student enrollment rates seen in 2017. The number of institutions expressing concern over the visa application process doubled from 2016 to 2017; the number citing social and political factors in the US nearly quadrupled. In line with those findings, the Wall Street Journal reported in March that immigration attorneys and higher education institutions point to stricter visa application scrutiny as a contributing factor in the 17% drop in student visas issued in 2017.

Several heads of US graduate physics programs suggested that the rise of global competition in STEM research and education could also be contributing to recent declines. “The quality of international PhD programs has (perhaps) increased,” writes Chris Neu, director of physics graduate admissions at the University of Virginia, in an email responding to the APS survey results. He cites “major endeavors in China and Japan [for] future particle accelerators” and other big science experiments outside the US.

Warren S. Warren, physics department chair at Duke University, says the large investments that China in particular has made in laboratories and recruiting scientific talent have dramatically improved the caliber of its science. Although Chinese students still travel abroad in large numbers to obtain graduate degrees, “there’s every reason to believe that’s going to change over the next decade or two,” he says, “simply based on the very large funding levels associated with basic science in China relative to the challenges in place” in the US.

In response to the survey’s findings, APS is speaking to members of Congress and their staffs to emphasize how international students contribute to the US economy and to advocate visa policy changes that would incentivize students to come to the US and remain after graduation.

This article is adapted from a 6 June post on FYI, which reports on federal science policy with a focus on the physical sciences. Both FYI and Physics Today are published by the American Institute of Physics.