Jack Li received his doctorate in science from a major university in the southeastern United States in 2020. The Chinese student said research opportunities remain strong in the U.S. but he planned to continue his work in Germany. Li told VOA earlier in 2021 that part of his decision was because of the “political environment in the U.S.” Li had good reason to feel that way. A recent survey by an education policy group showed Americans are somewhat concerned about too many Chinese students coming to study. The American Council on Education (ACE) talked to 1,000 Americans in the first part of 2021. It found that 43 percent of the people in the survey said they think international students take away places from American students. In addition, about 40 percent also said they think “some international students are sent by their country to try and steal valuable U.S. intellectual property.” When China was used as an example, nearly 50 percent said it is a “widespread problem.” Karin Fischer writes about international students for The Chronicle of Higher Education. Fischer said the number of international students coming to the U.S. grew by large numbers in recent years. So international students, especially those from China, became “a lot more visible” for people who live near colleges. “They’d become kind of caught up in the politics of immigration, of the politics of sort of Chinese-American geopolitical conflict, they got caught up in the politics of COVID and school re-opening a year ago.” The Institute of International Education’s Open Doors report says the number of international students in the U.S. has increased from 764,000 in 2011 to more than 1 million in 2020. In the same period, the number of Chinese students in the U.S. has nearly doubled from 194,000 to 372,000. Sarah Spreitzer is director of government relations for ACE. She helped write the report that came from the survey. She said it was important for ACE to learn how Americans feel about international students. ACE, she said, wanted to know if Americans supported the actions and words of former president Donald Trump and his administration related to international students. If they did, ACE wanted to make suggestions for how the administration of President Joe Biden could make life easier for international students.
