Media outlets are reporting on new data from the Institute of International Education (IIE) and the State Department, claiming that there are 1.1 million foreign students in the United States, and that 242,782 of them have obtained work authorization through the controversial Optional Practical Training program.
The data is entirely incomplete and a wild undercount of the real numbers.
In reality, as reported by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the agency that actually tracks this data through the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), there are 1,503,649 foreign students in the United States (on either F-1 or M-1 visas), and a total of 539,382 of them have obtained work authorization through one version of Optional Practical Training.
In sum, IIE’s report is missing about 377,000 foreign students, or a quarter of the foreign student population. The report is also underreporting the number of foreign students who have obtained work authorization by about 55 percent.
What Explains the Inaccurate Numbers?
There are many reasons the IIE report data is significantly off from the DHS data, as explained below. Anyone wanting accurate data on foreign students, the schools that enroll them, and foreign student employment data, should rely on DHS for this information.
Unreliable Collection. DHS has the responsibility of collecting real-time data from all schools and foreign students and ensuring that the data is continuously updated and accurate. This data is maintained in SEVIS, the most significant tracking database created by Congress in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Every school that is certified to enroll foreign students is responsible for maintaining these records, or otherwise risks having their certification revoked.
The DHS data is reported annually, each spring, in a report called, ”SEVIS by the Numbers”, the latest of which was published in May 2024. The data reported there is available in greater detail here and here.
In contrast, the IIE data, as reported annually in their Open Doors report, is compiled with data “obtained each year through surveys” sent to schools — which may or may not respond. The IIE refers to this as a “census” they conduct on their own. There are no repercussions if a school provides inaccurate data or chooses not to respond at all.
Not All Schools Are Included. When it comes to the DHS data, every school that is certified to enroll foreign students is hooked into SEVIS and the schools are obligated to report large amounts of data on their foreign student population — from fields of study to failure to attend classes. DHS has certified 7,417 schools to enroll foreign students.
The IIE sends their surveys “to approximately 3,000” schools. In other words, data from over half of schools that enroll foreign students isn’t included in the “Open Doors” report.
As one example, the controversial University of the Cumberlands, a private institution in Kentucky, enrolls one of the largest populations of foreign students compared to all schools in the country, with 8,551 foreign students. The school is controversial because it allows its foreign students to attend class for a few days out of the year and then facilitates their obtaining work authorization through a loophole in DHS regulations known colloquially as “Day 1 CPT”. A recent Bloomberg investigation describes this practice as an “elaborate charade”. Notably, if you scroll through the IIE report data, the University of the Cumberlands is not included, despite being one of the fastest-growing campuses catering largely to foreign students. It seems the IIE didn’t include Cumberlands in their census, or the school’s officials thought it might be better to fly under the radar and ignore any inquiries from the organization. Either way, this makes the IIE report largely useless for evaluating America’s foreign student program.
Not All Foreign Student Visa Types Are Included. Foreign students arrive on either an F-1 visa (for academic schools, like a university or college) or on an M-1 visa (for vocational institutions, like flight schools). As reported by DHS, the latest data shows there are 1,503,649 foreign students in the United States on these visas.
Oddly, the IIE report explains that it includes only foreign nationals who are “primarily holders of F (student) visas and J (exchange visitor) visas” while foreign students attending “secondary schools or vocational schools” are not counted. It’s unclear why foreign students in secondary schools and foreign students on M visas are not included.
The decision to include J visas is odd and could benefit from some explanation that doesn’t appear available. All sorts of exchange visitors on J visas are not academic in nature, as outlined on the State Department’s website. If DHS were to include this J visa data in its numbers, that 1.5 million number would be even larger.
Employment Authorization Issues. A controversial employment program for foreign students created and managed by DHS is having the effect of turning the nation’s foreign student program — which is supposed to be an educational experience — into a foreign worker program (with none of the protections that exist within congressionally authorized foreign worker visa programs). According to the latest DHS data, there are 539,382 foreign students authorized to work through a “practical training” program.
There are three types of practical training offered by DHS: The most popular is simply called Optional Practical Training (OPT), which allows aliens on foreign student visas to work for up to a year after graduation. There are currently 276,452 foreign students with work authorization via OPT.
DHS also created the STEM OPT program (which is actually an extension of the OPT program) and allows for an additional two years of work authorization (for a total of three years) for foreign students who have completed degrees in a field that meets DHS’s definition of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. There are currently 122,101 foreign students with employment authorization to work under the STEM OPT program.
Finally, there is Curricular Practical Training (CPT), which allows foreign students to work while still enrolled in classes, prior to graduation. There are currently 140,829 foreign students with employment authorization to work under the CPT program.
Despite there being over a half-million foreign students who have obtained work authorization through some form of practical training, the IIE report puts the number at 242,782 students. Now, the complication might be that they refer to “Optional Practical Training” when reporting this number, meaning that IIE might only be reporting the one-year-long version of practical training (which would put their number pretty close to the 276,452 number DHS reports for OPT). However, on other parts of the IIE website, they refer to both OPT and STEM OPT when presenting their numbers. More likely, IIE doesn’t understand how many versions of practical training there are (and/or didn’t properly survey schools on the question), and when coupled with the fact that they only report data from some schools, their number is much smaller and entirely inaccurate.
More about the practical training program controversies is available here, here, and here.
Time Frame Differences. Compiling all foreign student data is no easy task as the data is constantly in flux. One difference between the DHS and IIE data that might cause some discrepancies is that the DHS data is reported by calendar year each spring while the IIE report is based on an academic year and is released in the fall. This is likely to have at least some effect on the discrepancy, but it is obviously not the most significant reason for the differences in data.
A Significant Trend Missed. Perhaps the biggest problem with the State Department-funded IIE report is that it’s designed to create a pretty picture through inaccurate information that hides the true impact of the foreign student program and related employment programs. The report notes percentage increases in certain nationalities (e.g., an increase in Indian foreign students compared to Chinese foreign students), but even that data is inaccurate as a result of the missing data described above.
By focusing only on year-to-year changes, the IIE misses longer-term developments. Perhaps the most significant trend in the foreign student program is that it is being quickly transformed from an education-focused program into a foreign worker program.
For example, DHS reports that 82,241 foreign students began employment in 2007 and that a total of 345,514 foreign students began employment in 2023 (all while still on a student visas, of course). It’s important to remember that this is a count of employment start dates that occurred during those years, not the total number of students with work authorization during those years (some work authorizations are for three-year periods, meaning that the total number of foreign students with work authorization during any given year is much higher).
Put differently, there was a whopping 320 percent increase in the number of foreign students who obtained work authorization through some form of practical training when comparing 2007 to 2023.
Data on foreign student employment was not collected in a manner that allows for easy comparison on the total number of work authorizations by year. But as of 2023, nearly 36 percent of foreign students currently in the United States have obtained work authorization through some form of practical training. Without a course correction to emphasize the educational intention of the foreign student program, there’s every reason to believe this percentage will continue to rise.