Harvard Hits High for Foreign Student Enrollment Despite Battles With Trump Administration

Jan 19, 2026 | Immigration Articles

According to reports, Harvard University’s international student enrollment hit a high of 6,749 students in the fall of 2025, which is nearly 28 percent of the total number of students studying at Harvard and is the highest recorded share since at least 2002. The increase is due at least partly to graduate student enrollment; undergraduate international student enrollment has been declining. This was despite the university’s battles with the Trump administration over funding cuts and vetting and admission of foreign students.

According to Bloomberg Law, foreign graduate student enrollment at U.S. universities declined by 1.4% in the fall 2025 term. The number of foreign students across the U.S. dropped by close to 5,000 even as the overall number of students grew by 1%, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Harvard’s share of students from India (545) dropped by about 31 percent in the fall of 2025. The largest group of international students at Harvard are Chinese.

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