Trump administration policies pose a cultural and financial threat to Washington’s universities

written by Lauren Kramer

When Hassan Karim was accepted as an incoming postdoctoral research scholar at the University of Washington’s Graduate School of Sciences, he was ecstatic. The young Iranian had spent years preparing for this moment, and acceptance at UW was a chance to fulfill his dreams. (For the safety of the student, we use a pseudonym for this story.)

The opportunity came to a sudden halt with President Donald Trump’s June 9, 2025, proclamation of a travel ban on international students from specific countries, including Iran. In a letter to NAFSA, the Association of International Educators, Karim described how deeply the ban affected him.

“I spent more than five years (hoping) to get admission for a once-in-a-lifetime research opportunity in the United States—only to have it taken away by circumstances beyond my control,” he said. “Education should not be treated as a threat. We are students, researchers and future contributors to the global academic community. We deserve the chance to fulfill our dreams and be part of the world’s progress. We deserve a future, too.”

The Presidential Proclamation implemented travel restrictions and a complete suspension of visas for international students from twelve countries including Iran, Libya, Afghanistan and Yemen. It affected 18,926 international students according to the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration. The nonpartisan nonprofit organization is composed of more than 580 presidents and chancellors of public and private colleges and universities in the United States and Puerto Rico.

Students from another seven countries, including Venezuela, Sierra Leone and Burundi, were given a partial suspension of entry, affecting 5,339 students. Another Presidential Proclamation, issued in September 2025, introduced a $100,000 fee for certain new H-1B visa petitions filed for beneficiaries currently outside the United States. According to the federal government the restrictions are based on national security and public safety concerns, including issues like inadequate identity verification, high visa overstay rates and concerns about state sponsorship of terrorism.

The restrictions don’t revoke the validity of existing visas, nor do they apply to nationals who were inside the U.S. on June 9, 2025. But they create uncertainty for those students and no guarantee of re-entry should they need to return home, even with a valid visa. For those in Karim’s position, these restrictions slam the door on dreams of research opportunities he had worked toward throughout his academic life.

Washington ranks sixteenth in the country for enrollment and fifteenth in the country for economic contribution of international students, according to NAFSA. In its 2023 economic value report, the organization noted some 23,878 international students were enrolled in the state, contributing $918 million to the economy and supporting 6,615 jobs.

The travel ban is disappointing, said Rachel Banks, NAFSA’s senior director of public policy and legislative strategy. “It sent a not-very-welcoming message to students from the countries affected, particularly Iran, which until recently sent between 10,000 and 12,000 students to the U.S. each year. Since we don’t have diplomatic relations with Iran, Iranian students had to go to other countries to interview for their visas. The hurdle they had to overcome to get into the U.S. was already high, and the added travel ban on top of it is just really disappointing.”

While the other countries on the “ban” list sent comparatively smaller numbers of students to the U.S., the ban is nevertheless impactful. Its effects go well beyond the international students themselves, robbing domestic students of opportunities to interact with the international community.

The list of individuals who’ve come to the U.S. for academic purposes and gone on to make incredible contributions to the world is significant. Albert Einstein, known for the theory of relativity, arrived in 1933 to study at Princeton. Chien-Shiung Wu, known as the “first lady of physics” for her contributions to nuclear physics, came from China in 1936 to study at UC Berkeley. Henry Kissinger came from Germany to study at Harvard and played a crucial role in U.S. foreign policy, and Madeleine Albright, from the Czech Republic, came to study at Columbia University.

“International students contribute so much to our classrooms, to research, to the academic endeavor and to the communities that interact with these students,” Banks said. “Only 10 percent of American students complete a study abroad program, so for the other 90 percent, having international students on campus gives them the benefit of learning about different cultures and countries.”

International student numbers vary significantly by university and college, but educators and administrators agree the role international students play is invaluable. Bellevue College had just 1,371 international students last year, representing 6.5 percent of the student population. While the college hasn’t seen an impact on international student enrollment, it has noticed a change in the climate.

“The political discussions on student visas and immigration send the message that America is not welcoming toward international students,” said Jean D’Arc Campbell, assistant vice president of international programs at Bellevue. “That can have a big impact on other countries’ perception, even if those countries are not among those on the travel ban list.”

International students are a critical part of Bellevue College and integral to Washington state, Campbell reflected. “International students are an asset, and they bring more than just tuition; they bring a diverse culture that allows us to meet with people from other countries and hear their unique experiences. As a global society, it is incumbent upon higher education institutions to educate our student body about the world.”

Richard Bruce, director of International Student & Scholar Services at Western Washington University, sees a multiplier effect of having international students on campus. “When U.S. students interact with international students, they may become more interested in international travel, study and work and in turn help develop a globally competent workforce and citizenry,” he said. The 150-to-200 international students at WWU come from forty-five different countries.

At UW, international students constitute 14 percent of enrollment, with 8,740 enrolled in fall 2024. Net tuition and fees was 10 percent of the university’s total budget of $11.75 billion for 2024-2025, and international students’ tuition and fees constituted 20 percent of UW’s net tuition.

NAFSA projected a 30 to 40 percent decline in new international student enrollment in the U.S. in fall 2025, which it anticipated would result in a 15 percent decline in overall enrollment. “This drop would result in nearly $7 billion in lost revenue and 60,000 fewer jobs,” it said in an analysis of international enrollment outlook. In Washington, it projected the loss to be $145 million.

The visa bans targeted nineteen countries in the June executive order, but there were rumors at the time that another thirty-six countries would be added—twenty-five of them in Africa. That has not occurred, but if it did, a total of 76,777 students would be affected. NAFSA is urging the State Department to provide expedited visa appointments and processing for F-1 and M-1 students, and to exempt certain exchange visitors from the travel restrictions that currently ban those countries—while maintaining the background checks and vetting required for visa issuance.

“We are shooting ourselves in the foot by turning away international student and scholar talent,” said Banks. She noted the many advances in medicine and tech innovations where international students and scholars have played a key role. “The vaccine developed for COVID was developed in part by Katalin Karikó, a Hungarian who first came to the U.S. as an international postdoc research scholar,” she added. “If she hadn’t been here, we wouldn’t have benefited from that. By driving away international students and scholars, we will suffer from short-term and long-term consequences.”

Ironically, a decline in domestic enrollment at American universities will be one of those consequences, warns Zuzana Wootson, deputy director of federal policy at Presidents’ Alliance. “Domestic enrollment increases as a result of international student enrollment, meaning that international students create academic opportunities for American students,” she said. She referenced data from the National Foundation for American Policy, which indicates that if international students no longer came to the U.S. to study, undergraduate enrollment would drop by 2 percent while graduate enrollment would decline by 11 percent between 2025 and 2029.

The programs most likely to be affected will be the STEM fields, she added. In 2019 and 2020, half of all STEM master’s degrees and 57 percent of all STEM doctorate degrees were conferred to international students, the majority of them hailing from China and India, according to Educational Testing Service.

“In Washington state, revenue from international students will drop from close to $1 billion to $821 million next year, and that’s just from spring to fall 2025,” she continued. “It may seem like a small drop right now. But with more expected policy changes, it’s a trend that’s likely to continue unless we assemble policies that welcome international students. This is how we as a country arelosing the benefits international students create for us.”