Impact of Trump's 15% cap on foreign students in US colleges on Indian Students

What is the 15% cap in USA for international students?

The US government has shared a proposal called ‘A Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education’ with nine US universities. The 15% cap is proposed for the universities on international students. The policy is as follows:

• Limit the number of international undergraduates to 15% of the total undergraduate enrollment at each school.

• From every country, the cap for international students must be 5% the undergraduate population.

• If accepted, then the universities will receive federal funding, research grants, or other benefits. Universities that agree will get access to better funding, while those that do not might receive reduced federal support.

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Which are the affected universities from the 15% Cap?

The top universities in USA receive federal funding from the US government. The 15% cap proposal by the Trump administration has stated that if the universities accept the proposal, then they will gain preferences in terms of US government funding and grants. The universities that have been sent the proposal are:

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

• University of Pennsylvania

• University of Arizona

• Brown University

• Dartmouth College

• University of Southern California

• University of Texas

• University of Virginia

• Vanderbilt University

These universities already receive huge sums of federal funding from the US government. The data is as follows:

• MIT gets about 45% of its $4.8 billion budget from federal sources.

• Penn and Vanderbilt get around $1 billion–$1.3 billion (50–70% of their budgets) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), and Department of Defense (DoD).

• Brown and Dartmouth receive approximately 60–70% of federal funding, while the University of Texas, the University of Virginia and the University of Arizona get around 45–60%.

• University of Southern California gets about 55%.

Impact of the 15% cap proposal on Indian students

Indian students represent the largest group of international students in the USA, followed by Chinese students. If US colleges accept the Trump administration's proposal to implement the 15% cap on international enrollments, this could limit opportunities for many Indian students looking to study in USA.

The latest data from Open Doors 2024 suggested that India has become one of the largest international groups in USA because of the graduate programs and Optional Practical Training (OPT), rather than undergraduate students. As the 15% cap is on the undergraduate enrollment, the impact might vary. According to the IIE press release, the total number of Indian students for the academic year 2023-2024 is around 331,602. This includes 196,567 graduate students and 97,556 on OPT, while undergraduate students are around 36,053. This also means that about 60% of Indian students in the USA are studying graduate courses, almost 30% are on OPT, and only about 10% are studying undergraduate courses. This means that even if every university accepts the proposed policy, it will not heavily affect Indian students, as only around 10% of Indian students are studying undergraduate courses in USA.

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