CU Boulder reported its first year-over-year enrollment decline since fall 2020, driven largely by a sharp drop in international students.
The university’s preliminary fall 2026 enrollment was 38,510 degree-seeking students, down 298 students, or 0.8%, from a year earlier, according to a presentation to the CU Board of Regents. International enrollment declined by exactly 400 students, from 2,154 to 1,754.
CU Denver and the University of Colorado Colorado Springs also reported declines in both international and overall enrollment. Across the entire CU system, international students fell from around 3,300 to 2,700 over the past year.
CU Boulder has generally seen falling international student enrollment since 2017, when it peaked at about 3,100 students. The steepest drop came during the pandemic. Enrollment then rebounded through fall 2022 but never reached pre-pandemic levels.
The trend predates President Donald Trump’s return to office in January 2025 but has accelerated over the past two years. International enrollment at CU Boulder fell 6.2% year over year in fall 2023, 1.7% in 2024, 10% in 2025 and another 18.6% in 2026.
Since returning to office in 2025, the Trump administration has introduced several policies affecting international students. Student and exchange-visitor visa applicants must set their social media profiles to “public” for screening by officials. New federal guidance has also narrowed when international students may receive authorization for curricular practical training, which covers certain off-campus internships, according to CU Boulder. More than 1,800 international students and recent graduates lost their F-1 or J-1 status in spring 2025, although the administration later restored the terminated records, according to Inside Higher Ed.
In July, the Department of Homeland Security finalized a rule that would generally have limited F-1 students and J-1 exchange visitors to admission periods of no more than four years, after which they would have to apply for an extension. The rule would have replaced the longstanding “duration of status” policy, which allows students to remain as long as they make expected progress toward their degree or participate in authorized work experience connected to their visa. A federal judge blocked the rule on Sept. 14, one day before it was scheduled to take effect. The litigation continues.
CU Boulder had budgeted for an enrollment increase in 2026-27. Instead, the decline is expected to create an approximately $25 million gap between projected and actual revenue, which campus departments will have to close before the next budget cycle.
Most international students generally pay full nonresident tuition, making them an important source of revenue for public universities. A 2017 study of U.S. graduate programs found that their higher net tuition payments can help universities subsidize the enrollment of additional domestic students.
