Amid growing geopolitical tensions, shifting federal policies, and expanded research security and compliance requirements, universities across the country are facing challenging questions: what do changing policies mean for international scholarly exchange? How can institutions continue to foster academic openness in a constrained environment? And what role can universities continue to play in the global production and circulation of knowledge?

In December 2025, Ithaka S+R began work on a three-year project, funded by the Henry Luce Foundation, examining how US universities can sustain international scholarly exchange and navigate an evolving policy environment. As part of this work, Ithaka S+R is bringing together researchers, institutional leaders, legal and policy experts, and other stakeholders within the research enterprise to consider how universities can respond to current pressures while sustaining their commitments to international engagement.

In this blog post, we examine how international students experience policy uncertainty and basic needs insecurity and consider how institutions might design new supports. Recognizing the diversity of international students’ needs can help institutions move beyond one-size-fits-all approaches and develop responsive supports. Sustaining international values in the research enterprise, after all, requires institutions to understand and support the people whose work, knowledge, and relationships help make that enterprise possible, including international students.

Who are international students?

International students, both undergraduate and graduate, constitute an important portion of the US research pipeline: graduate students conduct research across disciplines, contribute to laboratories and research teams, teach and mentor other students, and often move into postdoctoral, faculty, industry, and other research roles. Undergraduates, too, are part of this pipeline as potential future graduate students and researchers. International students who return to their home countries after studying in the US also play an important role in sustaining international research networks and collaborations. The knowledge and relationships they develop while studying in the US can contribute to long-term connections among researchers and institutions across national boundaries.

International students are not a monolithic group with a single set of experiences or support needs. Indeed, in 2024–25, US institutions hosted over 1.1 million international students from more than 200 places of origin. Hailing from across the globe, they also navigate US higher education from different social, financial, academic, and immigration positions. A fully-funded doctoral student, a self-funded master’s student, a postdoctoral scholar, a visiting scholar, a community college student, and a student with dependents may all encounter the same policy environment differently. Their experiences, as several scholars have argued, can vary by multiple factors such as degree level, field, funding source, income background, country of origin, race, ethnicity, religion, language, gender, family responsibilities, and whether their country is affected by travel bans, sanctions, visa restrictions, conflict, or diplomatic tensions.

Policy uncertainty and everyday life

In recent years, federal immigration policies and guidance affecting students and scholars have shifted quickly, making it difficult for students, faculty, staff, and institutions to track what is current, what may change, and when a proposed change will take effect. Changes to immigration timelines, practical training, travel and visa processing, screening, and post-graduation pathways can affect academic and professional decisions as well as mobility, family plans, and students’ sense of safety and belonging.

Some of these changes are especially consequential.

Academic timelines have become less flexible. The new Duration of Status rule, scheduled to take effect on September 15, 2026, replaces Duration of Status for F, J, and I nonimmigrants with fixed admission periods. Under this rule, F-1 and J-1 students and scholars may generally be admitted for the length of their program, not to exceed four years, and the F-1 post-completion grace period is reduced from 60 days to 30 days. The rule creates new academic mobility restrictions related to transfers, changes in educational objectives, and degree-level changes. For students and scholars, ordinary academic developments, such as delayed fieldwork, changes in research direction, funding shifts, adviser transitions, or longer-than-expected degree timelines, may now require additional immigration processes, documentation, costs, and advising support, complicating already challenging lives of individuals and potentially driving some foreign students away from the US higher education. The rule is also currently subject to a legal challenge, further illustrating how quickly the policy environment can shift.

F-1: The primary student visa/status for international students enrolled in academic programs at US institutions.

J-1: An exchange visitor visa/status that includes students, researchers, professors, and other participants in approved exchange programs.

Practical training and post-graduation planning are also affected. For example, recent Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) guidance standards for Curricular Practical Training or CPT, can affect students’ access to internships and other work-integrated learning opportunities. Moreover, because Optional Practical Training (OPT), job searches, visa transitions, and longer-term pathways such as adjustment of status are closely tied to immigration timing, shifting rules can make it harder for students to plan the period after graduation, while not knowing whether and how various post-graduation related proposed policies might go into effect.

Travel is another area where uncertainty affects both academic and personal life. International students and scholars may need to travel for varied reasons, including conferences, research presentations, fieldwork, archival work, collaboration meetings, visa renewal, or family responsibilities. Several institutions have advised international students and scholars to assess travel risks, make contingency plans, consult international offices, or avoid nonessential international travel because delayed reentry could affect their ability to continue research, work, or study. Visa-processing delays can also create uncertainty—as several US senators expressed in a letter to Secretary Rubio—about whether students and scholars will be able to enter the country in time to begin or continue their academic programs and research. Even domestic travel can become a source of uncertainty and require additional preparation: several institutions and organizations advise international students and scholars to carry key immigration documents. While this guidance may be necessary, it also places students and scholars in a difficult position: they are expected to carry several documents that are essential to have, but difficult, costly, or slow to replace if lost.

Country-specific restrictions create additional unevenness. Travel bans, visa restrictions, and enhanced screening affect students and scholars differently depending on factors such as nationality, field, and visa category. The US Department of State’s expanded social media screening for F, M, and J visa applicants adds another layer of uncertainty for those applying for or renewing visas. These developments can affect whether students feel safe traveling, applying for opportunities, changing academic direction, or seeking help when problems arise. A Stop AAPI Hate report on international students describes d concerns about safety, surveillance, silence, and feeling unwelcome, especially among students affected by anti-Asian racism and immigration uncertainty.

These uncertainties and changes show why institutional support cannot be limited to compliance reminders. Students and scholars need clear, current, and coordinated guidance that connects immigration timelines with academic timelines, travel decisions, professional opportunities, and personal responsibilities. This is especially critical because the same uncertainty that disrupts planning and mobility can also intensify financial strain and basic needs challenges.

Navigating basic needs insecurity

Basic needs insecurity directly affects students’ ability to participate in academic and research opportunities. Therefore, institutions seeking to sustain international values in the research enterprise should make basic needs support inclusive, accessible, and responsive to international students’ circumstances. Basic needs challenges are widespread among postsecondary students, and international students and scholars may face similar pressures with fewer safety-net options.

Many temporary-status students are not eligible for federal student aid, which is generally limited to US citizens or nationals, permanent residents, citizens of the Freely Associated States, and other eligible noncitizens. Federal nutrition assistance is also limited by immigration status, and recent USDA guidance notes changes to noncitizen SNAP eligibility under 2025 federal law. At the same time, F-1 students are generally limited to 20 hours of on-campus work per week while school is in session, and off-campus employment requires authorization. In practice, international students often cannot respond to a financial emergency by simply “getting another job.” Institutions can help fill some of these gaps through emergency funds that explicitly include eligible international students and by connecting students with on-campus employment or research opportunities available within immigration rules.

These pressures can be more acute for students and scholars with dependents. These dependents may not be allowed to work in the United States and are not eligible for Social Security numbers, which can leave an entire household dependent on one student or scholar’s funding, campus job, assistantship, or family support from abroad. Health insurance considerations are also critical, which vary by institution, and funding disruptions, assistantship changes, or unexpected costs can create uncertainty around medical bills, required health plans, and access to care. Some institutions address these challenges through dedicated dependent orientations, resource guides, and individualized advising.

Many international students are navigating challenges such as high tuition and living costs, limited access to aid, employment restrictions, support systems not designed around their needs, and uncertainty about whether using services could affect immigration status or enrollment. Housing concerns can also intensify during academic breaks, especially when students are advised to reconsider international travel and then need unexpected summer housing, meals, transportation, or employment options. Some interventions include expanding summer housing eligibility or providing free housing, meals and donor-supported emergency assistance.

These challenges can also compound existing mental health and well-being stressors, particularly for international students who are already navigating acculturative stress, distance from family, academic pressure, financial uncertainty, and unfamiliar institutional systems. Making basic needs resources easy to find, clearly explaining eligibility, and ensuring food support includes culturally relevant options can further reduce barriers to accessing help.

Concerns about help-seeking and self-advocacy

Uncertainty in the current environment can also impact whether international students and scholars feel able to speak up, seek help, or advocate for themselves. This concern is especially important as immigration timelines become less flexible under the new fixed-time framework, which academic delays, transfers, changes in research direction, or extended degree timelines may require additional immigration processes. These constraints can make decisions such as transferring programs, changing advisers, or reporting exploitative conditions feel more consequential. In this context, limited time and limited flexibility may make some individuals less likely to disclose problems early, even when early support is what they need.

The broader political environment may also affect help-seeking and self-advocacy. Recent litigation and court decisions involving noncitizen students and faculty have surfaced concerns that immigration enforcement tied to political expression can chill campus speech. Moreover, concerns about ICE encounters have encouraged higher education professionals to share relevant student-facing guidance to emphasize the importance of international students understanding their rights and knowing where to seek institutional or legal support. These resources can help students understand available options, but their growing visibility also signals the level of anxiety many students and scholars are navigating.

It’s important for institutions to recognize that support systems cannot assume that students will always feel safe asking for help. A chilling effect may not only limit protest or public speech; it may also make students hesitant to report discrimination, disclose food or housing insecurity, seek counseling, answer surveys, challenge harmful advising relationships, or ask international offices difficult questions. Support systems such as clear referral pathways, confidentiality protections, faculty training, and trusted points of contact are therefore essential parts of supporting international students and scholars. Sector-wide resources can also help institutions navigate this changing environment: initiatives such as the International Student Resource Center and the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration’s campus-preparedness resources provide timely policy information and guidance to support institutional responses.

Mentorship can be another important part of this support infrastructure, but rapidly changing policies make it difficult for faculty, peers, or alumni to rely on their own past experiences alone. Institutions can strengthen mentorship by giving mentors up-to-date guidance, clear boundaries, and referral pathways to international student offices, ombuds services, legal resources, financial support, and mental health services. This allows mentors to provide the academic and relational support they are well positioned to offer without expecting them to serve as immigration or legal experts.

Looking ahead

Over the past year, higher education institutions and organizations have engaged in a groundswell of coalition building and activism in response to the changing policy environment. Nonetheless, more work is needed to identify, assess, and expand supports responsive to the range of student needs. This is not ancillary to the research enterprise: policies and institutional practices that shape whether international students can enter, remain, and thrive in the United States affect its composition, capacity, and international connectedness. These concerns are particularly important amid recent declines in international student enrollment, which may have longer-term consequences for the US research and talent pipeline.

Through the Supporting International Values in the Research Enterprise project, we are working to identify additional areas for intervention. At our upcoming convening, we plan to explore where international students and scholars are encountering the greatest gaps in institutional support, and how institutions can better coordinate academic, immigration, and other forms of support. These conversations will help surface existing strategies, identify areas for further investigation, and inform future work.

If you are interested in supporting this work, sharing relevant initiatives, or exploring opportunities to collaborate, please contact Elmira.Jangjou@Ithaka.org or Ruby.MacDougall@Ithaka.org.