SEVIS Newsletter: April 2009 Quarterly E-Newsletter

POLICY UPDATE

A recent report produced by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation found that many foreign students are starting to find their job prospects here in United States dwindle after graduation. This, in large part, is due to the difficult economic climate that’s being experienced by most American companies, stricter measures placed on H-1B visas and the fear that jobs given to foreign workers could produce a political and public relations backlash for these companies.

By all accounts this was an incredibly successful working conference. During that week, participants provided candid feedback on the development of SEVIS II. Participants told us what worked and gave us robust evaluations on the pending design and implementation. During this conference, there were several breakout sessions to address specific issues facing academic and program sponsors. Both the F&M and J sponsor programs as well as Batch providers were given separate but equal levels of attention for the specialized issues pertinent to their domains.

But it’s not just the companies who are changing their attitudes. Reporting on the study’s findings, the Chronicle of Higher Education said, “in the 1980s and 1990s, most foreign students thought the United States offered the best job opportunities. But the latest survey found that 52 percent of the Chinese students, 32 percent of the Indian respondents and 26 percent of the European students now believe that better opportunities await them in their home countries.”

What’s happening on your campus? Have you started to detect a similar sentiment among your international student population? If so, what could this mean for higher education and the U.S. economy in general if we start to lose out on tapping into this highly-educated talent pool?

Let SEVP know what’s going on at your campus! Write to us at: SEVIS.Source@dhs.gov

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