International student enrollment at Indiana University has decreased for the third year in a row, down by nearly 16% from 2025 enrollment and 28% from 2024 enrollment.
According to university data, 4,854 international students were enrolled across IU’s nine campuses, down from 5,776 last fall and 6,749 in fall 2024. Yet overall enrollment at IU has slightly increased during the same time period.
The drop comes after a new Indiana law requiring background checks on students from certain nations entering engineering, computer science, microbiology and other scientific fields went into effect July 1. The check includes students who are citizens of China, Russia, Iran, North Korea or Cuba.
Also in July, the Trump administration created new visa restrictions limiting nonimmigrant student and exchange visitor visas to a four-year stay rather than an unspecified period of time. Visa holders who need extra time to complete their studies have to apply to stay past the four-year period and undergo screenings and background checks.
According to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security press release, the restrictions were put in place to eliminate a “duration of status” loophole that allowed visa holders to stay in the country by continuing to enroll in courses.
In spring 2025, the U.S. State Department revoked over 6,000 international student visas, including a “small” number at IU. The Trump administration later reinstated some of the visas while it developed a new policy for termination.
At Indiana University, the Wells Scholars Program’s admissions page briefly said over the summer it wouldn’t be accepting international applications for the 2026-27 cycle. The program is one of the university’s most prestigious, offering full tuition and a stipend for housing and a meal plan.
The page has since been updated to include international student admissions again. But former director Christoph Irmscher, who left the position Aug. 1, told the Indiana Daily Student the initial decision to pause admission for foreign students was a “kick in the butt on the way out.” Irmscher is on academic leave but is a distinguished professor in the English department.
“It is, symbolically, just really bad right now to cut anything that benefits international students’ attendance, that benefits international students,” Irmscher said. “Simply because there’s been such a push against international students, not just on our campus — everywhere.”
Wells Scholars Program Interim Director Cate Reck told the IDS she wouldn’t “comment on or disclose internal university financial decisions” when asked why international admissions to the program were briefly paused.
The program has been admitting international students for the past eight years.
