Columbia's deal with Trump administration seeks to reduce foreign students

The Trump administration’s new agreement with Columbia University takes aim at a key source of revenue for much of higher education: foreign students.

About 13,750 of Columbia’s roughly 35,800 students – or 38% – are international students. The new agreement requires Columbia to “examine its business model and take steps to decrease financial dependence on international student enrollment.”

It also requires a “comprehensive review of its international admissions,” ensuring that “international student-applicants are asked questions designed to elicit their reasons for wishing to study in the United States” and are “committed to the long-standing traditions of American Universities including civil discourse, free inquiry, open debate and the fundamental values of equality and respect.”

James Parrott, a senior fellow at the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School, says the new federal regulations are anathema to those traditions.

“Higher education has been one of the brightest areas of the city's economy in recent years, with international students playing an important part of that,” he said. “It has essentially been a strong New York City export. That strength has now had its knees cut out from under it."

Under the deal, Columbia will share admissions data with an independent monitor and the government. If either side feels like the other isn’t living up to the deal, the dispute could end up in court.

In a letter to the Columbia community on Thursday, acting university President Claire Shipman said the agreement resolved “a period of institutional uncertainty.” She defended the deal, writing that fighting the Trump administration could have led to the revocation of thousands of international student visas.

The university agreed Wednesday to pay $221 million to settle civil rights investigations and restore access to hundreds of millions of dollars in research grants. It codifies a slew of reforms the university made to address antisemitism, while underscoring some Trump administration priorities, such as requiring all-female sports and barring race preferences in admissions.

Miriam Feldblum, president of the President's Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, said some of the demands involving admission and student conduct “are already policy and practice.”

But she said the move to reduce reliance on international students is part of a broader pattern by the Trump administration that surveys show is deterring international students from enrolling in the United States.

Over the past six months, the Trump administration has sought to detain and deport student activists at Columbia, including the high-profile cases of Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi, attempted mass visa revocations of students and paused visa interviews. The federal government has also targeted international students in its campaign against Harvard University.

“This is happening right now and we're gonna see the adverse impacts in the fall,” Feldblum said, whose group is made up of universities including Columbia. “We're talking about rents and restaurants, food and furnishings, all the things that students need on a daily basis.”

More International students pay to study in the United States than American students pay to study abroad, and international students across the country also tend to pay more than their U.S.-born peers.

“The whole episode Columbia (and other universities) has gone through with the Trump administration is chilling, and likely will result in some reduction in international students coming to NYC,” Parrott said by email. “And coupled with the violation of due process for immigrants across the board … Trump administration policies will set back the NYC economy over the next few years.”

A Columbia official said the university will remain a global institution.