UCSD faces risk as Trump administration targets international students
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California has more international students than any other state, per data from NAFSA, an international education nonprofit.
Why it matters: The Trump administration is halting student visa interviews and revoking visas for Chinese students amid a political pressure campaign against colleges and universities and a broader immigration crackdown.
By the numbers: Of all international students studying in the U.S. during the 2023-24 school year, about 12.5% were doing so in California, 12.1% in New York and 8% in Texas.
The big picture: The student visa pause comes as the Trump administration has been criticizing U.S. colleges and universities for failing to crack down on what it describes as heightened antisemitism as students protest Israel's actions in Gaza.
- The State Department is considering broader vetting of student visa applicants' social media posts.
- The revocation of Chinese students' visas in particular is tied to concerns that their government is using them "to steal intellectual property on Beijing's behalf," a State Department official told Axios' Marc Caputo.
Zoom in: UCSD is especially exposed to the administration's crackdown.
- At the start of this school year, UCSD had 8,134 international students, or about 18.6% of the campus population.
- The largest share of that group — 3,826 students — were from China. That's more than twice the size of the next largest group of students, who were from India.
Yes, but: SDSU had only 1,068 international students at the start of the 2024-25 school year, or just 2.7% of the student population.
Flashback: UCSD's international student population began slipping in 2018, as the school bent to pressure from state officials that it concentrate more of its resources on state residents, as the Union-Tribune reported in 2022.
- The legislature in 2021 forced UCSD, UCLA and UC Berkeley to make a 4% cut to their international students.
- That came a decade after the schools ramped up recruiting international students and the larger tuition they pay.
What we're watching: A federal judge on Thursday extended a temporary order blocking the Trump administration from revoking Harvard University's ability to host international students.