Impact of Chinese International Students at US & Canada Graduate Programs

[GradSchoolGrad]

There is a lot of talk of how COVID-19 will create a waterfall decline of Chinese international students at US and Canada graduate programs. Out of curiosity what did people observe as the impact (pros and cons - lets discuss) of the presence of Chinese international students at your program? How might that change with the likely decline of Chinese international student numbers? Lets keep this free of geo-politics and focus on the education experience. 

[PokePsych]

nothing different from other international students really.

Also - there will be a decline of international students in general, as nobody is able to obtain a student visa at the moment - regardless of nationality (Canadians may be an exception, they have slightly different procedures).

So I guess things, at least in psych, will just become very American-centric if this continues and takes the American, white, middle/upper class psych as the standard of everything. Nothing new, but at least that was changing, partly due to the presence of international students. 

[JQRocks]

Departmental tuition income will be cut.

International MS students are a great component for tuition incomes for many departments, such as CS, ECE, ME, Statistic, etc. And these international students are paying out-of-state tuition, 3-5 times of in-state tuition.

So department funding can be a problem, impacting PhD recruitment for sure.

 

 

[ExponentialDecay]

Is there a reason you're singling out Chinese students rather than asking this about international students in general? Or would you rather not bring that up, since that would be "geopolitical"?

Edited January 11, 2021 by ExponentialDecay

[GradSchoolGrad]

2 hours ago, ExponentialDecay said:

Is there a reason you're singling out Chinese students rather than asking this about international students in general? Or would you rather not bring that up, since that would be "geopolitical"?

I seek to explore the Chinese international students because they in particular are unique in having massively surged in the 2000's and 2010's in the USA/Canada and have + are expected to "waterfall" (granted with some program nuances of course). You don't have another  International student cohort who have this level of power in numbers which schools by in large are expected to have incrementally diminished access to.

I was in a grad program that sought to build diversity + numbers by acquiring Chinese international students in mass. I saw numerous pros and cons to the student experience. 

Edited January 11, 2021 by GradSchoolGrad

[GradSchoolGrad]

2 hours ago, JQRocks said:

Departmental tuition income will be cut.

International MS students are a great component for tuition incomes for many departments, such as CS, ECE, ME, Statistic, etc. And these international students are paying out-of-state tuition, 3-5 times of in-state tuition.

So department funding can be a problem, impacting PhD recruitment for sure.

 

 

So not sure how this applies to graduate schools, but in undergraduate world (among schools that aggressively pursued Chinese international students), there were lots of complaints about how US students were unable to seek hard sciences majors because there weren't enough instructors to go around as nearly all the Chinese international students sought the hard sciences.

At least in undergrad world, the programs were being cut during budget cuts weren't the hard sciences, but the ones that are not seen as economically essential (i.e. Philosophy, English, History, and etc.). In fact, even in schools with small international student populations, hard science major demand has only increased among domestic students. 

[Outer Heaven]

Has the visa process changed from the same time last year? I have some international friends who had to return home due to the terms of their visa. 

[IvanC]

On 1/13/2021 at 4:13 PM, Outer Heaven said:

Has the visa process changed from the same time last year? I have some international friends who had to return home due to the terms of their visa. 

Nope! Most embassies and consulates are closed. They’re only issuing emergency visas.