{"id":274822,"date":"2025-09-17T10:51:43","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T14:51:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/?post_type=short-read&p=274822"},"modified":"2025-09-18T15:17:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T19:17:17","slug":"americans-tend-to-view-international-students-positively-though-some-support-limitations","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2025\/09\/17\/americans-tend-to-view-international-students-positively-though-some-support-limitations\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans tend to view international students positively, though some support limitations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Students
Students attend a graduation ceremony at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 29, 2025, days after the Trump administration moved to bar Harvard from enrolling international students. (Selcuk Acar\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

U.S. colleges and universities resumed classes this fall with fewer international students<\/a> than in recent years, according to some early projections. In the 2023-24 academic year, the United States had more than 1.1 million<\/a> international students at its higher education institutions \u2013 an all-time high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These forecasts follow the Trump administration\u2019s temporary pause<\/a> and subsequent redesign of the student visa interview process<\/a>, as well as its efforts to deport some student activists<\/a>, among other moves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How we did this<\/summary>\n

Pew Research Center conducted this survey to understand Americans\u2019 views of having international students at U.S. colleges and universities, as well as limiting the number of students from specific countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this analysis, we surveyed 8,750 U.S. adults from Sept. 2 to 8, 2025. Everyone who took part in the survey is a member of the Center\u2019s American Trends Panel (ATP), a group of people recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses who have agreed to take surveys regularly. This kind of recruitment gives nearly all U.S. adults a chance of selection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interviews were conducted either online or by telephone with a live interviewer. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education, presidential vote (among voters) and other factors. Read more about the ATP\u2019s methodology<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we last asked about these issues<\/a>, we only asked about Chinese students. This year, we were interested in understanding how people felt about limiting the number of Chinese students compared with students from other countries. We conducted a split-ballot experiment:<\/p>\n\n\n\n