The number of international students attending the University of Washington continues to drop during the second Trump administration, declining to its lowest level in at least a decade.
The total number of international students at the Seattle campus fell by close to 7% for the second year in a row, according to a UW report released Tuesday.
The total of 6,951 international students is down from 7,439 international students last year and a drop of more than 15% from the peak of international student attendance in the 2022-23 academic year. It's the lowest total since at least 2017.
In the last two years, international student enrollment has been falling across the country as the Trump administration targets universities and international student programs, revokes student visas, and cuts federal research funding.
UW's latest numbers marks another sign that the state is losing a significant number of students from overseas. A report by Manifest Law analyzing Homeland Security data suggests Washington had the nation's highest decline by percentage in international students from 2025 to 2026, at close to 16%.
In 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced plans to "aggressively" revoke visas for Chinese students hoping to study in the U.S. Almost half of the international students at the UW this year are from China, by far the largest country of origin, followed by India, Taiwan, and South Korea.
(...)
