In recent years, foreign students have been prominent in protests and American college campuses, leading some to call for limits on the number who may be enrolled.
In today’s Martin Center article, computer science professor Ed Gehringer argues against that idea.
He writes:
Increasingly, qualified students from around the world are seeking an American education. In my department at NC State, 86 percent of Ph.D. applicants in computer science for 2025 came from outside of the United States. That figure alone speaks volumes. These were not casual submissions — they were competitive applications to a selective program. The sheer volume of international interest reflects a global recognition of American graduate education as a proving ground for serious talent.
Moreover, Gehringer observes, foreign students are often far more serious about their studies than are Americans. If we want talented and ambitious students, it would be a mistake to arbitrarily limit the number of foreign students.
Gehringer also observes:
Without their majority-international graduate students, many specialized technical programs would simply collapse. They rely on foreign enrollment not just for diversity but for scale. Without enough students to justify faculty lines, departments couldn’t sustain the advanced coursework, research labs, or mentoring structures that define graduate education. And with so few qualified applicants, they wouldn’t be attractive places to work, either. As the National Foundation for American Policy puts it: “At many U.S. universities, the data show it would be difficult to maintain important graduate programs without international students.”
Gehringer is right. We need to admit students based on their academic abilities, not on the supposed need to fill quotas of students from certain groups or not to have too many of others.