Trump Effect? Cornell's Business School sees slowdown in visa processing for Indian applicants
NEW DELHI: The premier Ivy League universities may have begun to see some impact of the Donald Trump administration's declared intention to tighten visa and employment norms for overseas citizens.
A case in point is the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University in New York.
“In India, what we have seen is some delays in processing and some reductions in applications. What is disturbing is we are seeing a slowdown in visa processing,“ said Soumitra Dutta, the founding dean of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business.
Visa processing in some other countries has also slowed down due to uncertainty in the foreign policy of the new administration, Dutta said.
This has led to concerns that there may be a temporary dip in the number of Indian students choosing the USA as the preferred destination for higher education.
Already, American universities have begun to see a decrease in the number of applications from prospective students in the countries which are part of the Trump administration's proposed travel ban.
At Cornell, about 10% of the MBA class at the B-school is from India, but there are also a large number of Indian Americans who are not counted in this group. However, experts fear that the impact may not be restricted to students and may show up in the number of Indians who apply for work visas to the US.
Dutta said that any reduction in the number of H-1B visas offered by the US will have a significant impact on the ability of American companies to fill jobs in IT and other knowledge based sectors with foreign talent.
Indians comprise 15.9% of the total international students in the US, forming the second-largest ethnic chunk. In 2015-16, Indian students in the US soared 25% over the previous year to a record 1.65 lakh, contributing more than $5 billion to the US economy , according to the Institute of International Education's Open Doors report.
The numbers may take a hit this year if President Trump's policies deter foreign students. The US President has spoken about “extreme vetting“ of Muslims and other immigrants.
“Cornell, like all American universities, is monitoring the situation very carefully helping students with their visa processing to the degree possible and being flexible if some students need to delay the start of their studies at Cornell,“ Dutta said.
A case in point is the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University in New York.
“In India, what we have seen is some delays in processing and some reductions in applications. What is disturbing is we are seeing a slowdown in visa processing,“ said Soumitra Dutta, the founding dean of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business.
Visa processing in some other countries has also slowed down due to uncertainty in the foreign policy of the new administration, Dutta said.
This has led to concerns that there may be a temporary dip in the number of Indian students choosing the USA as the preferred destination for higher education.
Already, American universities have begun to see a decrease in the number of applications from prospective students in the countries which are part of the Trump administration's proposed travel ban.
At Cornell, about 10% of the MBA class at the B-school is from India, but there are also a large number of Indian Americans who are not counted in this group. However, experts fear that the impact may not be restricted to students and may show up in the number of Indians who apply for work visas to the US.
Dutta said that any reduction in the number of H-1B visas offered by the US will have a significant impact on the ability of American companies to fill jobs in IT and other knowledge based sectors with foreign talent.
Indians comprise 15.9% of the total international students in the US, forming the second-largest ethnic chunk. In 2015-16, Indian students in the US soared 25% over the previous year to a record 1.65 lakh, contributing more than $5 billion to the US economy , according to the Institute of International Education's Open Doors report.
The numbers may take a hit this year if President Trump's policies deter foreign students. The US President has spoken about “extreme vetting“ of Muslims and other immigrants.
“Cornell, like all American universities, is monitoring the situation very carefully helping students with their visa processing to the degree possible and being flexible if some students need to delay the start of their studies at Cornell,“ Dutta said.
