Guffey Presents at American International Club of Geneva

Ryan Guffey, PhD, Director-General of Webster University's Office of Global Campuses, recently led a presentation as a featured speaker at a lunch hosted by the American International Club of Geneva on Feb. 18.

Guffey’s presentation, “United States International Higher Education Sector: 2025 Forecast," covered topics including the economic impact of international higher education, economic capacity building, knowledge transfer and the impact of the U.S. election on international students. The presentation was tailored to university leaders, international organizations and policy makers.

According to the National Association of Foreign Student Advisors (NASFA), the economic impact of international higher education is substantial. In 2023, 1,126,690 international students in the U.S. contributed to the creation of 378,175 jobs, generating a considerable economic benefit of $43.8 billion. Stated another way, one U.S. job was created for every three international students, underscoring the significant space international students occupy in the economic landscape. The U.S. states hosting the greatest numbers of international students are California, New York and Texas. While Missouri ranks tenth in total number of international students in residence, the economic impact within Missouri by Webster University ranks fourth among all higher education institutions, generating and forecasted $102.3 million in revenue and creating 444 jobs.

Guffey highlighted the key role that international students play in economic capacity building — particularly in connection to the growth of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) sectors — with a high concentration of students coming from a small handful of countries. The top 10 countries of origin account for over 70% of all international students in U.S. programs, with students from India (29%) and China (24%) representing 53% of all international students in the United States. Recent trends indicate that the fastest-growing places of origin for international students in 2023-2024 were Ghana (+45%), Bangladesh (+26%) and India (+23%).

In conjunction with economic capacity building, knowledge transfer remains one of the primary contributions international students make to the United States, notably in STEM fields. According to the NAFSA Open Doors Report, in 2023-2024, 56% of all international students were pursuing degrees in STEM subject areas, with 25% studying mathematics and computer science, 19% studying engineering and 8% studying physical and life sciences. Within mathematics and computer science degree programs, Indian students comprise 42%, Chinese students, 23% and South Korea students, 13%.

International students who remain in the U.S. after completing their degree programs contribute to considerable knowledge transfer benefitting the U.S.

Of all international students who graduated from U.S. degree programs between 2012 and 2020, 41% remain in the U.S. Of those, 17% were bachelor’s recipients, 50% were master’s recipients and 75% were PhD recipients. In 2022, there were 441,502 H1B visa approvals for international graduates of U.S. programs. Of those, the top five countries of birth were India (72%), China (12.5%) and Canada (1%) for all H1B recipients, representing 87% of all approvals. In 2023, the total number of H1B recipients increased to 755,020. From these individuals, the U.S. directly benefits from knowledge transfer into U.S. markets.

In conclusion, Guffey emphasized that international students play a crucial role in the higher education landscape, bringing together future leaders of worldwide markets and preparing them to tackle the challenges of a competitive global market. Moving forward, policymakers should consider the economic role international students play not only in advancing the interests and competitiveness of the United States, but also in navigating complex geo-economic and geo-political dynamics.