Education is the greatest export – the cancellation of student visas is a serious mistake

While the Trump administration has been involved in the United States in a comprehensive commercial war because of what it says it is an unfair trade deficit, it causes an irreversible damage to more of our export: education.

For nearly a month, on the campus of universities throughout the country, hundreds of international students’ visas have been completed suddenly. This sudden shift in politics – as it was suddenly reversed this week, and with a little interpretation – makes our international students increasingly concern about their future hopes and dreams.

Potential foreign students began to ask whether they should go elsewhere to study. These bright students and young people will not stop learning, innovation and changing the world because we do not offer a safe environment – they will stop doing this here.

There are more than a million international students in the United States, the majority of whom pay the huge tuition fees to study here. It is a blessing for America because of the companies and innovations they create and that help maintain this country at the forefront of science and technology. Others still return to work in their home governments, their knowledge of the US market economy, and democratic values ​​and culture from studying here makes them better leaders and ambassadors, while their networks are working to maintain relations with the United States.

Moreover, the billions of dollars they pay in academic payments are export, which helps to reduce a very modified trade deficit with education support for Americans.

Almost half of the Fortune 500 CEOs are immigrants or immigrants, many of whom came here to study in the United States. Take, for example, the five largest companies in the world by market value, all American. Among them, three companies are currently leading foreigners who have studied in the United States: Satia Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, born in the United States and came to the United States to study computer science at the University of Wisconsin, Milwoki, and later obtained a master’s business at the University of Chicago; Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, was born in Taiwan and studied in Oregon. After years he obtained a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering in Stanford; Pichai Sundarajan, Google CEO, Born in Indians, came to the United States to study engineering in Stanford and also obtained a Master of Business Administration in Warton.

It is not just senior executives. Fortune 500 founders are also immigrants who have studied in the United States in addition, the share of the Nobel Prize winners residing in chemistry, medicine and physics born in the United States, who studied in the United States, is much higher than their share in the population. These exceptional works and scientific leaders keep the United States on technological borders.

Educating the best and brilliance from all over the world enhances our foreign policy. More than 200 foreign heads of state spent time studying in the United States, including many of our most important allies and friends. Among the current leaders who studied in the United States Claudia Xinbum from Mexico, which spent three years at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, is working on a PhD. In Energy Engineering; Mark Carney from Canada, who attended Harvard for a Bachelor’s degree. Benjamin Netanyahu from Israel, who obtained a master’s degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Several ministers of economics, finance and external have also been taught

By attracting future leaders, the American higher education system expands global knowledge of American political and economic institutions, as well as our culture. Moreover, international education may be the only foreign policy tool that does not cost American taxpayers.

Finally, most people do not think about education as export, but it is. The United States exports more than $ 50 billion in education services annually, which is a similar value to car exports, which total $ 57 billion in 2024.

Income comes from education sales from many foreign students who pay for education here. Like buying a car made in the United States, it pays foreigners for the degrees of forbidden in America. Unlike cars, many parts of their abroad and do not create US jobs, the added value in education exports is almost local, which means that its direct impact on the American economy is greater. Moreover, foreign income enables American institutions to provide supported education to Americans, creating an additional indirect to the American economy.

While higher education in the United States is not perfect, it is the best in the world. Regardless of where the classifications are collected, half of the best 20 universities around the world are in the United States (see for example, QS classifications from the United Kingdom). Attracting foreign students expands us – economically, politically and culturally. It also helps to balance our trade deficit and support education for Americans.

Unfortunately, the chilling effect of the study on the study here from the expiration of the sudden, unacletted student visa, not to mention the missing federal financing of the research, will be bad for the country and it may be difficult to reverse. Foreigners will not stop searching for study abroad, but their talents will contribute to innovation in other countries and their knowledge of the United States will decrease. Attracting international students may be the only American foreign policy tool that expands local innovation and the American economy while it does not cost anything for American taxpayers.

Caroline Frond is the dean of the College of Politics and Global Strategy at the University of California in San Diego and a former director of trade, investment and competitiveness in the World Bank.