Apr 28, 2004 2 min read

BOSTON (AP) – A steep decline in graduate school applications from foreign students has university administrators pushing the federal government to reform the visa process. Their argument: The trend could cost U.S. schools much-needed revenue and research help, and make America seem isolated in the eyes of the world. International graduate student applications for this fall are down 32 percent compared with a year ago, according to a recent survey, and schools are extending application deadlines so they don’t lose students still negotiating U.S. bureaucracy.

Meanwhile, in public comments and private lobbying, universities are urging federal officials to speed up visa applications, stressing the U.S.’s role as a beacon to the world’s students could be in jeopardy.

Officials from several California schools and the Department of Homeland Security discussed foreign student matters Tuesday at a gathering in San Diego. And representatives from a handful of prominent schools, including the presidents of Yale and Princeton, met in New York recently to explore ways to use the influence of their trustees to help make their case.

Universities acknowledge that the importance of foreign students is not obvious to the public, which has security concerns after one of the Sept. 11 hijackers entered the country on a student visa. Some may wonder why foreign students take up 600,000 slots in American universities in the first place. But administrators insist those slots are as important now as ever.

“This is one of America’s most effective forms of diplomacy,” said Douglas Kincaid, vice provost for international studies at Florida International University in Miami, where foreign enrollment is down 10 percent. “We’re educating people who will be in influential positions in science and industry and government around the world.”

More than 90 percent of graduate schools reported their foreign applications for this fall declined, according to a survey of 113 universities by the Council of Graduate Schools.