As the dean of an institution where each year’s incoming class of 900 MBA students contains about 350 people from abroad, I have watched with concern the reports of declining interest among foreigners applying to US universities. A survey by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers found that 40 per cent of schools saw a drop in foreign applicants for the next academic year.
I think about these numbers not only in my role as a dean but as someone who faced the same decision these students need to make, albeit in times when tensions around immigration were far less palpable. Born and raised in India, I came to the US for graduate school in the early 1980s, became a citizen and have lived here ever since. Over the past year my immigrant friends and I have been asking ourselves: if we were 30 years younger and considering coming to America today, what would we do?
We understand why President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration tone has found an audience. The threat felt by US workers due to competition from lower-wage earners in other countries is understandable. Add in recent episodes of global terrorism, and isolationism appears appealing — the same way Brexit appealed to some British voters.