Amid a decrease in international student undergraduate enrollment nationwide under President Donald Trump’s administration, international undergraduate students’ intent to register has increased at UC Berkeley from fall 2024 to fall 2025, according to data from the Berkeley International Office, or BIO.
Specifically among campus freshmen, the number of Statements of Intent to Register, or SIRs, from international students for fall 2025 enrollment more than doubled from fall 2024.The number of first-year international students admitted by campus also increased sharply — by 97.44% — despite international student applications only increasing by about 8%.
International transfer students saw an even greater increase, with SIRs and admissions up by around 147% and applications up by 11.53%. In contrast, however, graduate student SIRs decreased by 1.36%, with only marginal increases in applications — up by 3.551% — and admissions — up by 2.56%.
“I would not call the Fall 2025 admit numbers for first-year students a surge when viewed in a broader context,” said campus spokesperson Janet Gilmore in an email citing the prior year in which campus had fewer enrollment seats overall as well as fewer applications from international students.
Across the country, enrollment of new international students has decreased by 17% this fall, according to a report released by the Institute of International Education released Monday, Nov. 17. The report surveyed more than 800 colleges.
The decline in nationwide international student enrollment comes after federal policies that include travel restrictions, delayed visa processing and even pressuring some colleges to recruit and admit fewer international students.
In response to the Trump administration’s policies, many universities are offering flexibility for students who were unable to attend this fall. UC Berkeley is among the universities allowing students to defer their enrollment in light of delayed visa approvals, according to Gilmore.
To provide support for international students under the Trump administration, BIO provides services to keep these students informed about changes in federal regulations and guides them on how to comply with those policies, according to BIO director Ivor Emmanuel.
“BIO continues to create a welcoming and supportive environment making them (international students) feel that they are valued members of the UC Berkeley community,” Emmanuel said in an email.
Despite the increase in intent to enroll among international undergraduate students, systemwide data on fall 2025 international student enrollment is not yet available. This consideration is important because an increase in intent to enroll does not necessarily equate to an increase in enrollment.
“Campuses recognized that international students could face greater financial and/or administrative challenges to enrolling at any U.S. university, including UC, and therefore increased admissions to non-residents with the expectation that some students might not ultimately be able to enroll given these challenges,” said University of California Office of the President Senior Director of Strategic and Critical Communications Rachel Zaentz in an email.
Moreover, while applications, admissions and SIRs rose from fall 2024 to fall 2025, they still fall below campus’s highest-ever number of international student admissions, which occurred in 2021 with 1,701 admitted international students. The number has since remained below that mark for the past four years.
Per a 2022 compact with the UC system and Gov. Gavin Newsom, UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC San Diego must cap international undergraduate student enrollment at 18% of each campus’s undergraduate enrollment.At the end of the 2024-2025 academic year, UC Berkeley was meeting and exceeding this limit, according to Zaentz.
“UC Berkeley’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions will continue to perform outreach to international students and welcome international applications,” Gilmore said in an email.