Heightened national security and blocked access to Northwestern’s Web site may be causing fewer foreign students to apply to NU’s graduate program, said Renee Bischoff, associate director of graduate admissions.
Compared to Fall Quarter’s numbers, international applications have dropped 22 percent, mirroring a national decline in applications from foreign students to U.S. doctoral and research universities.
A study released Tuesday by the Council of Graduate Schools found that more than 90 percent of U.S. graduate schools reported a decline in applications from international students. Total international applications dropped 32 percent from fall 2003, according to the study.
Despite NU’s decline in international applicants, Bischoff said overall applications for the school are down only 2 percent because of a boost in domestic interest.
“I think in general when the economy is not great people make more decisions to go to (graduate) school right away rather than waiting a couple of years,” Bischoff said.
Foreign students applying to study in the United States must undergo a “very time-consuming and very labor intensive” visa application and approval process, Bischoff said, likely discouraging many from applying.
“For students who want to come to the United States, there’s a lot of paperwork that needs to happen,” Bischoff said. “Some international students may be saying, ‘Why do I want to go through all of that when I can go to Canada?'”
NU has seen its sharpest drop in applications from China, Bischoff said, particularly to McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science programs and science programs in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.
McCormick’s electrical and computer engineering program had about 300 Chinese applicants last year, said Jay Walsh, McCormick’s associate dean for graduate studies and research.This year that number plummeted to 130.
Because Chinese students now have no access to NU’s Web site, Walsh said, the application process becomes increasingly difficult.
The Chinese government began blocking access to the Web site “four or five months ago,” said Mort Rahimi, vice president for Northwestern University Information Technology.
“The only thing that we’ve been told is that it’s a security matter,” Rahimi said.
Other schools across the country have been dealing with the same problem, Bischoff said.
“It’s not just Northwestern,” she said. “It’s Duke, it’s Stanford — everybody’s having the same problem with China. It’s clearly impacting application volumes in this cycle.”
Tim Lee, co-president of the Chinese Students Association, said he could not access NU’s Web site during his stay in China last summer.
“I wasn’t really surprised because I know the Chinese government restricts access to other Web sites,” said Lee, a Weinberg junior.
Even though the study cited visa regulations as a key factor in declining applicant numbers, Walsh said the new rules affect current students more than potential applicants.
Shuming Zhang, president of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association, said he was planning to go back to China for the summer but decided to postpone the trip.
“There are friends of mine who went back to China for the winter and they haven’t come back yet because of background security checks,” said Zhang, a second-year graduate student.
To ensure that NU keeps attracting international students, Bischoff said the school “may have to do something proactively,” perhaps organizing a recruitment effort, she said.
Rahimi said NU has been addressing the Web site blockage “by contacting various Chinese authorities.”
A steady decline in Chinese student enrollment — and international student enrollment overall — would be a huge detriment to the university, Walsh said.
“This is really too bad for students in China,” Walsh said. “We get excellent students from China. They add greatly to our total mission and they add culturally to our institution.”
