Last fall, more than 1,400 international students attended Idaho State University. This year, the number of international students enrolled has dropped by 36 percent. The decline comes after reports of racially charged attacks against some ISU students from the Middle East last spring.
But according to the university, the drop in attendance has more to do with policy than anything else.
School officials say both Saudi Arabia and Kuwait notified the university by late last year that they had reached their limit with the number of students allowed to attend certain programs and schools, and that they would not be sending any freshman this year. Laura Woodworth-Ney is a vice president and provost at Idaho State.
“It’s not something that you want to see in your enrollment data," says Woodworth-Ney, "but having had the notification that we wouldn’t have incoming cohorts gave us an opportunity to do some planning. And we’re also very happy to see our Idaho resident numbers improving and increasing.”
International students pay almost three times more in tuition as compared to students from Idaho.
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