Changes to U.S. policy on Chinese visas may trickle down to college enrollment, officials warned, and Texas’ schools may feel some impact.
The Trump administration plans to shorten the length of validity for some visas issued to Chinese citizens, the State Department said Tuesday, as President Donald Trump works to counter alleged theft of U.S. intellectual property by Beijing.
Chinese students are among the most common foreign students at institutions around Texas.
In fall 2017, 789 Chinese students enrolled at the University of Houston, more than the total number of students from the top 10 non-Texas states. That figure was second only to India’s, at 885 students.
The university says about 600 of those Chinese students were graduate students, and about 400 of those students were in STEM-related fields. UH spokesman Chris Stipes said it is too early to speculate on the policy’s impact on student enrollment.
“It’s not altogether clear how the U.S. Department of State will implement this policy,” he wrote in an email.
At the University of Texas at Austin, 1,386 Chinese students enrolled in fall 2017, making that country the biggest source of international students. The vast majority of those students were doctoral and master’s students, spokesman J.B. Bird said in an email.
