Online Growth Can Save Struggling US Universities

When campuses shut down overnight because of the Covid-19 pandemic, colleges scrambled to move classes online. But what began as an emergency measure has become a core part of the American academic experience.

Now, a new political reality makes the case for scaling online education even more urgent. The Trump administration has pressured universities to cut their reliance on foreign enrolment, frozen visa interviews in key countries and introduced new social media screening rules for international applicants, slowing approvals. It has also moved to deport students for political activism or infractions and has imposed controversial restrictions on particular institutions, such as Columbia University, obliging them to reduce international student numbers, among other things.

As a result of all this, NAFSA, the Association of International Educators, projects that international enrolment could drop by between 30 and 40 per cent this fall – a potential $7 billion (£5.2 billion) hit to the US economy that would put 60,000 jobs at risk.