As the “big four” anglophone study destinations, the US, UK, Canada and Australia, all crack down on international students, it is striking that many of their main source markets in Asia are aiming not only to retain more of their own students but also to recruit many more international students of their own.
The big four’s virtually unprecedented move to all crack down on international enrolments at once, amid increasingly hostile public attitudes towards immigration, has come on the back of a global pandemic that severely disrupted international student flows. This has already led to marked changes in Asian students’ migration patterns. Analysis after analysis have shown that they are steadily withdrawing from anglophone destinations.
For instance, a recent report by Common App, an NGO focused on US college admissions, found that the number of Indian students applying to US colleges fell 15 per cent in 2025-26 compared with the previous academic year. The Trump administration’s intention to hike the price of sponsoring an H-1B skilled worker visa to more than $100,000, if successful, is sure to suppress demand further, as are proposals to restrict international students to a maximum four-year stay from September.
