Student mobility between Africa and US falls during COVID

The COVID-19 pandemic has decreased the number of international students from Africa who are studying in universities in the United States, as their numbers fell from a high of 48,679 students in the 2019-20 academic year to 45,343 students in 2020-21, a drop of 6.85%.

Data released jointly by the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the Institute of International Education (IIE) indicated that, in Sub-Saharan Africa, the mobility of students to the US dropped from 41,697 to 39,061 and in North Africa from 6,982 to 6,282.

According to Dr Mirka Martel, the head of research, evaluation and learning at the Institute of International Education, the pandemic affected students seeking to study in the US for the first time as many students could not travel in 2020-21 to begin their studies.

“Universities have also reported some international students deferring their studies to a future semester or year as a result of travel restrictions in their home countries,” said Martel in the IIE’s most recent report, Fall 2021 International Student Enrollment Snapshot.

Nigeria leads the way

But, despite COVID-19 disrupting travel of African students to study in foreign destinations, Nigeria was still the leading African country with the highest number of students in the US, according to the 15 November brief of the Institute of International Education.

Whereas there were 13,762 Nigerian students in the US during the 2019-20 academic year, the number dropped by about 6.6% to 12,860 in the current academic year. In spite of the marginal decline, Nigeria was placed 10th overall among countries of origin with students in the US.

Ghana, with 4,229 students, has the second-largest contingent of African students in the US after Nigeria, ahead of Egypt (3,672), Kenya (3,502), Ethiopia (2,166) and South Africa (2,079).

Other African countries with more than 1,000 students in the US included Rwanda (1,333), Zimbabwe (1,304) Morocco (1,249), Democratic Republic of Congo (1,125) and Cote d’Ivoire (1,115).

US student numbers in Africa decline

Data from the Institute of International Education also revealed that, during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of US students who studied abroad for academic credit (earning only a portion of the total credits required for a qualification) also significantly decreased globally from 347,099 students in the 2018-19 academic year to 162,633 in 2019-20, a drop of just over 50%.

In this context, the number of US students in Sub-Saharan Africa dropped from 13,455 students in the 2018-19 academic year to 5,444 students, a reduction of about 60%.

A similar trend was observed in North Africa where the number of US students studying for academic credit, mainly in Egypt and Morocco, dropped by about 40% as the number of such students decreased from 2,038 in the 2018-19 academic year to 1,242 in 2019-20.

But one of the highest cutbacks of the US students in Africa was noted in South Africa where the number of students plummeted from 5,278 in the 2018-19 academic year to 2,159 students in 2019-20, a hefty drop of 59%.

Similar trends occurred in other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, as in Ghana, where the number of US students went down by 62.5% from 2,147 students in 2018-19 to 797 students in 2019-20.

In Tanzania, the number dropped by 55% from 1,334 students to 602 students, and in Kenya the figure shrank by 47% from 926 students to 494 students during the same period.

But, unlike elsewhere in Africa, during the period under review, the number of US students in Egypt, albeit small, increased by 51% from 248 to 375.

Optimism

While COVID-19 has significantly disrupted the mobility of African international students to the universities in the US, researchers at the Institute of International Education are optimistic that enrolments of foreign students will improve.

“US colleges and universities have already invested significant funding to ensure a safe return to in-person instruction and our findings indicate that the levels of financial support for international student outreach and recruitment have not waned,” said Martel.

She stated that 77% of the universities are currently funding outreach and recruitment at the same level or higher than pre-pandemic era.

Currently, African students account for 5.3% of the 914,095 international students in the US universities and colleges, with Nigeria contributing 1.4% of the total enrolment.

But, going by pre-pandemic estimates, Dr Leah Mason, a researcher at the Institute of International Education, says foreign students from Sub-Saharan Africa are expected to increase in the US.

In a study, ‘International Student Mobility Flows and COVID-19 Realities’, Mason says more increases are anticipated to come from Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa.

Apart from Nigeria, which had a student increase of 3%, the rest of those countries had seen their student numbers to the US grow between 8% and 15% just before COVID-19 emerged.