Graduate Enrollment Breaks with Nat’l Trend

The number of international students applying to Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences has increased this year, bucking a national trend of decreasing numbers of foreign students applying to U.S. graduate programs.

The Council of Graduate Schools survey, released today, found that while the number of Americans applying to domestic graduate programs increased six percent—the largest increase since an 11 percent uptick in 2002—the number of international students from certain countries has dropped as much at 16 percent.

“The lack of growth in first-time international enrollment raises questions about the future of our nation’s share of the global student market,” CGS President Debra W. Stewart said in the survey’s press release.

But the number of international students applying to Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences increased this year, according to GSAS Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Russell E. Berg.

“I think we continue to be very attractive to international students,” he said. “Whether it’s happening across the country, I don’t know.”

Despite the current national trend lines, Stuart Heiser, manager of external affairs for CGS, said the Council will wait for additional surveys before drawing any conclusions.

He noted that increasing competition from graduate and undergraduate programs abroad has been a recurrent recent pattern. Top schools in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong have all reportedly raised their enrollment numbers to accommodate regional students.

The survey reports a 16 percent decrease in graduate enrollment from India and a 13 percent decline from South Korea, while China was one of few countries to defy this trend with a 16 percent increase.

Tough economic conditions have added another layer to enrollment questions. At budget-strapped GSAS, increases in applications have not translated into increased international enrollments. According to Berg, GSAS sought to reduce this year’s class size to 2007 levels after large growth in 2008 because the school could not afford the generous financial aid that it offers to graduate students. The number of students admitted to GSAS departments either dropped or did not change.

CGS’s Heiser said that the global downturn may also have contributed to the fall in international students, who must be able to bear the cost of an American education.

Heiser said administrators expected increased applications as Americans began to seek graduate school education to improve their credentials in a tougher job market.

The next survey will be distributed to CGS universities in April regarding 2010 applications. “We may yet still see enrollment increases.”

—Staff writer Noah S. Rayman can be reached at nrayman@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Elyssa A.L. Spitzer can be reached at spitzer@fas.harvard.edu.