Since taking office, the Trump administration has sought to limit access to the US by individuals from certain countries through travel bans instituted by executive order. On Friday, the Trump administration issued a presidential proclamation that expanded the existing ban to include six additional countries.
Effective Feb. 21, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar (Burma), Nigeria, Sudan, and Tanzania will join seven other countries already facing travel restrictions.
“Extremely disappointing” are the words NACAC used to describe Tuesday’s Supreme Court decision to uphold President Trump’s travel ban.
In a statement released to the press, the association expressed concern that the 5-4 decision would allow for discrimination against individuals based solely on their nationality and/or religion. Three earlier iterations of the ban — which prohibited travelers from several majority-Muslim countries from entering the US — had previously been struck down by lower courts.
Nearly four in 10 colleges have seen drops in applications from international students, and recruitment officials report that families are exhibiting “a great deal of concern” about how their students will be treated in the US, according to early findings from a recent survey of more than 250 US colleges and universities.
The survey — conducted last month by AACRAO in cooperation with NACAC, International ACAC, and three other higher education associations — shows that 39 percent of respondents reported an overall drop in international applications for fall 2017, with the highest number of institutions reporting declines in applications from the Middle East.
Institutions also reported drops in applications from students in India and China. Currently, those two countries are home to nearly half of all international students studying in the US.
