A new report shows the number of international students in Colorado last year went up slightly compared to 2015, but the increase marks a slowdown from the large increases of previous years.
The University of Colorado Boulder has the most international students, followed by Colorado State University at Fort Collins and the University of Denver, according to the International Education Exchange report.
Those numbers are of a part with what's going on nationally, the report says:
While the overall number of international students studying in the United States has increased, the number of new international students—those enrolled at a U.S. institution for the first time in fall 2016, declined by nearly 10,000 students to about 291,000, a three percent decrease from the previous year. This is the first time that these numbers have declined in the twelve years since Open Doors has reported new enrollments.
There are more than 11,000 international students on Colorado campuses. A third are from China; India has climbed to second place, and Saudi Arabia has fallen to third because of reductions in Saudi government scholarships. International students spent $429 million in Colorado last year.
The organization's Alan Goodman says several factors account for the decline– stiff competition from other countries, uncertainty about the American political and social climate, and the rising cost of tuition.
