Policy Priorities

Attracting the best and the brightest students from around the world contributes immeasurably to U.S. preeminence in academic research and scientific innovation. By providing a potential path to employment and an option to remain in the country permanently after graduation, this legislation would create a powerful incentive for international students seeking advanced STEM degrees to choose the U.S.

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.

The Biden-Harris administration began at an unprecedented moment in U.S. history. The COVID-19 pandemic was at its peak, travel restrictions were in pace around the world, and international education was in crisis. Today, rebuilding and restoring U.S. engagement with the world is critical. This is essential if we are to get the country’s economy and higher education system back on track. International education must be a key element of this recovery.

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.