Hartford Business Journal

12 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | APRIL 21, 2025 University of New Haven President Jens Frederiksen said the school's international student population has dropped for the first time in several years. HBJ PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER 'Deeply Troubling' Student visa revocations, growing visa backlog may drastically shrink international student enrollment – and revenue – at CT colleges Success Coalition, asked Congress to "take urgent action to expand visa processing capacity" due to an unprecedented rise in applications for student visas, particularly from countries like India and Africa. At the time, wait times were as long as 350 days, depending on the student's country of origin. Since then, college leaders say the backlog has ballooned as uncertainty over Trump administration policies causes more confusion and delays. Meantime, hundreds of interna- tional students — including some at UConn and Yale, according to published reports — have recently had their visas terminated, often for reasons that are unclear, and that they are unable to contest. Immigration attorney Dana R. Bucin, a member of the law firm Harris Beach Murtha, said the federal government isn't just revoking students' visas, but terminating their residency status, which can lead to them "literally being snatched off the streets," without a warrant, then detained and deported. "This is very disconcerting, because as an attorney, I am all of the sudden feeling protective of the rights of these students who have just been notified that they are suddenly deportable," Bucin said. In the past, students who lost their visas often were able to complete their studies. Recently, international students have had their status revoked under the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, which is controlled by the Department of Homeland Security, meaning they can be immediately removed from the country. Bucin said it's "unusually cruel" to prevent students from completing the spring semester, with less than a month remaining. "Let them finish their tuition-paid semester, and I'm sure they will opt to not come back again if they've had their visa revoked," Bucin said. "But don't interrupt their studies before the graduation date, or before the semester ends, before they even take their finals, or before they file their dissertation and finish their studies for which they paid." Bucin said the administration's policies have made international students "walking targets" who are being deprived of their rights. 'Substantial challenge' The changes have left international students seeking to study in the U.S. unsure of their futures, and domestic universities unable to recruit as many international students as they would like. So far, for the coming 2025-26 academic year, University of New Haven's applications from international students are down more than 50% from two years ago, Frederiksen said. "For an enrollment-driven insti- tution like the University of New Haven, any disruption significantly impacts our bottom line," Frederiksen said. "Given the proportionally large international graduate population By Andrew Larson alarson@hartfordbusiness.com F or college leaders that value the cultural diversity — and tuition dollars — that inter- national students provide, there is mounting fear about the lack of visas being approved by the federal govern- ment, and the impacts on enrollment and revenue next year. Amid a growing backlog of inter- national students waiting for visas, a rash of student-visa revocations nationwide and a general uneasiness about the Trump administration's poli- cies toward non-citizens, U.S. colleges are bracing for steep declines in international student enrollment. That could have a significant financial impact on schools in Connecticut — including the University of New Haven (UNH), Yale, UConn, Sacred Heart and the University of Bridgeport — that enroll thousands of foreign students who often pay the highest tuition prices. UNH, which has the largest share of international students in the state, expects its foreign student population to drop from 3,108 in 2024 to about 1,800 next year. "We're seeing lower visa rates, we're seeing more visa denials, it's obvi- ously deeply troubling for us," Univer- sity of New Haven President Jens Frederiksen said in a recent interview with the Hartford Business Journal. Between fall 2019 and fall 2023, the West Haven-based school's inter- national student population surged 349%, from 820 to 3,682, according to federal data from the National Center for Education Statistics. Frederiksen, a Denmark native, attributed much of the increase to a catch-up period following the COVID-19 pandemic, but said the school seeks to recruit students from diverse perspectives. Its international pupils currently hail from about 80 countries. "Our motto is 'local field, global reach,'" Frederiksen said. "We've been a very active school internationally because we genuinely do believe in the importance of an elite global work- force, both for our domestic students and for our international students. … We're not looking to change that." In 2024, the school's international student body dropped for the first time in three years. Students from overseas still comprised about a third of UNH's 9,229 student population in 2024 — mostly at the graduate level. But that level will be difficult for the school — known for its criminal justice, forensic science, business and engineering programs — to maintain. "We're seeing applications down, but we have plenty of accepted students that are waiting for visas, just very few have been granted," Frederiksen said. Status revoked Currently, more than 3,200 inter- national students who have been accepted to UNH are stuck waiting for the U.S. Department of State to grant their entry visas. The backlog preceded the Trump administration. In May 2024, NAFSA, an agency that promotes international education, along with the U.S. for CT COLLEGES WITH THE LARGEST INTERNATIONAL STUDENT ENROLLMENT INTERNATIONAL % OF TOTAL STUDENTS STUDENT RANK INSTITUTION (FALL 2023) POPULATION 1 University of New Haven 3,682 37.5% 2 Yale University 3,564 23.6% 3 University of Connecticut 3,402 12.4% 4 Sacred Heart University 1,971 17.6% 5 University of Bridgeport 1,464 35.7% 6 Wesleyan University 370 11.3% 7 University of Hartford 337 5.7% 8 Trinity College 303 13.3% 9 Connecticut State Community College 185 0.5% 10 Central Connecticut State University 183 1.9% Source: HBJ analysis of National Center for Education Statistics

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