US universities on the brink as Trump-era visa policies trigger historic international student collapse

For decades, American universities stood as lodestars of global education, drawing students from every corner of the world with promises of academic excellence and opportunity. International enrollment was not just a measure of prestige but also a vital revenue stream that underpinned research, faculty hiring, and campus expansion. That foundation is now buckling under political turbulence. The Trump administration’s sweeping changes to immigration and education policies have chilled the flow of global talent into US classrooms. Tightened visa procedures, federal funding cuts, and the specter of enrollment caps have sent international students elsewhere, destabilizing universities already strained by shrinking domestic enrollments and rising operational costs. What once appeared as iso