by Recent state and federal policy changes might cost public colleges in North Texas millions of dollars and thousands of students.
The University of Texas at Arlington stated in a draft 2026 budget released by the University of Texas Board of Regents that it is anticipating a 40% decrease in international students from more than 5,500 last year, even though official enrollment figures for the upcoming year won’t be known until early September.
According to the draft, general student tuition revenue is anticipated to drop $13 million to $15.6 million in FY 2026 compared to the FY 2025 budget, based on enrollment predictions.
Meanwhile, the University of North Texas said that the budget has been hit by $50 million as a result of the departure of overseas students.
The Trump administration’s crackdown this spring resulted in the revocation of the visas of thousands of international students. Fanta Aw, executive director of the Association of International Educators, remarked that even if the visas were restored a few weeks later, the warning and the message were unmistakable.
According to Aw, overseas students generally feel that they are no longer accepted in the United States.
According to Aw’s organization, the loss of overseas students is expected to cost $400 million to Texas universities and community institutions like Dallas College.
Get Arlington news that matters
The stories you need to know about the neighborhood you adore. Every Thursday, right in your email.
Since UT Dallas has more international students than any other university in Texas, according to UTD’s own International Students and Scholars Office, it might be one of the hardest hit. When undergraduate and graduate enrollments are combined, that equates to at least 4,500 graduate students and over 5,000 total.
In the Regents draft budget, the university stated that a $28.0 million drop in tuition and fees was the main cause of the operating budget’s decline, but it made no mention of overseas enrollment. UTD has not responded to KERA News’ request for further information.
According to Aw, the Trump administration is reducing the amount of international student visas for a number of reasons, including stringent social media screening and fewer appointments at foreign embassies.
According to Aw, they still grant visas for tourists and other individuals, but the number of international students receiving them has drastically decreased.
Students and the schools they would have attended would suffer as a result of all of this, according to Aw. She foresees a brain drain of elite youngsters who choose to attend universities in the UK, Japan, or Germany rather than Texas or the US.
Colleges and institutions in North Texas and the United States may also see hiring freezes or layoffs as a result.
According to the Association of International Educators, around $7 billion will be lost by American schools nationally.
Enrollment has also decreased because in-state tuition for students without legal status was eliminated. The more cheap tuition for students without legal status was eliminated when Texas’ decades-long policy of granting in-state tuition to them was recently ruled unlawful.
During a finance conference last week, Texas Woman’s University vice president of enrollment management, Javier Flores, stated that the lawsuit between the United States and Texas, which centers on in-state tuition for students who are not legally there, is having an effect on our enrollment for 2025. He did not provide precise figures.
According to UT Arlington, 300 undergraduate students who do not have legal status will no longer be eligible for in-state tuition.
Related
The Journalism Trust Initiative has accredited Fort Worth Report for upholding ethical journalism standards.
Republish this narrative
Noncommercial organizations are exempt from republishing fees. It is forbidden for businesses to operate without a license. For further information, get in touch with us.
Republish this article
The Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License governs this work.
- Look for the “Republish This Story” button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS). Do not copy stories straight from the front-end of our web-site.
-
You are required to follow the guidelines and use the republication tool when you share our content. The republication tool generates the appropriate html code.
-
You are required to add this language at the top of every republished story, including a link to the story.
This story was originally published by the Fort Worth Report. You may read
the original version here
.
- You can t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You can t sell or syndicate our stories.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
-
If you use our stories in any other medium for example, newsletters or other email campaigns you must make it clear that the stories are from the Fort Worth Report. In all emails, link directly to the story at fortworthreport.org and not to your website.
-
If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using
@FortWorthReport
on Facebook and
@FortWorthReport
on Twitter.
-
You have to credit Fort Worth Report. Please use Author Name, Fort Worth Report in the byline. If you re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: This story was originally published by Fort Worth Report and include our website,
fortworthreport.org
. - You can t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories.
- You can t sell or syndicate our stories.
- You can only publish select stories individually not as a collection.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
-
If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using
@FortWorthReport
on Facebook and
@FortWorthReport
on Twitter.
