Policy Priorities

NAFSA remains committed to its long-standing priorities of ensuring the global competency of U.S. college graduates through expanding access to study abroad and attracting and retaining the best and brightest international talent.

NAFSA advocates for increased federal funding of international education and exchange programs to ensure U.S. colleges and universities can recruit global student talent and produce U.S. college graduates with the skills necessary for future workforce success.

To make study abroad the norm, not the exception, for today's U.S. college student Congress should pass the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Program Act to incentivize higher education to increase study abroad and provide a cost-effective, sustainable way to ensure more diverse U.S. undergraduates can study internationally.

Excessively long and unpredictable visa interview wait times and a disproportionately high denial rate for students coming from the Global South are affecting U.S. higher education, the economy, and national security. 

A national strategy for international education would serve to proactively recruit talented students and scholars to U.S. colleges and universities from countries around the world and increase the number and diversity of U.S. students who can access the career skills associated with study abroad.

Following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, NAFSA has identified urgent policy and actions the Biden administration should adopt to help protect lives and provide a measure of stability to Afghan students, scholars, and researchers--particularly women and girls.