“Where the company stands today, I don't think it would have been possible without the ecosystem and the support that I got from ASU,” says Lal, who credits his professors with going “out on a limb” to connect him with clients. Devalok’s portfolio includes brands such as movecars.com; Eat Purposefully, a fermented granola company; and DIVINI, which makes probiotic teas.

Speaking from his dorm room on campus in late August, Lal, who is studying robotics and entrepreneurship, says he counts a public affairs course he took with ASU President Michael Crow as one of the most impactful experiences during his time as an undergraduate.

“That was one of the classes that unlocked a new dimension of thinking altogether for me,” says Lal, who did a project for the course that examined the importance of lunar bases.

As Lal begins his eighth and final semester at ASU this fall before returning to his homeland, advocates worry that stricter immigration policies being pursued by the administration of President Donald J. Trump will dissuade large numbers of Lal’s peers from around the world from studying in the US. The Trump administration says the reforms are necessary because the immigration system is too lenient and too lax.

Lal says he heard directly from international students in spring of 2025 who told him they were worried about waking up to a government email stating that their student visas had been rescinded.

“This was the most scary period for international students,” Lal says of spring of 2025, when the Trump administration started revoking thousands of visas from international students for various reasons – including some that groups such as the American Association of University Professors say were more political and meant to squelch free speech than to promote public safety.

“I got a chance to speak to a lot of students firsthand,” Lal says. “So, I think that was the worst crisis in terms of not feeling welcome.”

As colleges and universities in the US brace for fallout from Trump’s policies, advocates say making international students feel welcome is particularly important. The policies could cause a potential 30-40% decline in new international student enrolment, which in turn may contribute to a 15 percent drop in overall enrolment this fall.

The anticipated drop would follow a record high of 1.27 million international students who studied in the US during the 2023-2024 academic year and result in the loss of 60,000 jobs and an estimated $7 billion to the US economy, according to US international education advocacy group NAFSA.

“At a time when federal policy shifts can make students feel unwelcome, it's especially important that institutions create an environment where students know they belong and can succeed,” says Rachel Banks, Senior Director of Public Policy and Legislative Strategy for NAFSA.

At ASU, 14,600 international students are studying at the school this fall, a decline of 3 percent from the 15,100 who attended ASU in the fall of 2024.

Recent shifts in policy for international education in the U.S. include:

● A proposal from the US Department of Homeland Security to end “duration of status” for student visa holders. NAFSA calls the proposal a “gross governmental overreach and deterrent to global talent,” while the Trump administration says the proposed rule would end abuse of the system by “forever” students who extend their time in the US simply by enrolling in more college courses.

● Revelations that the State Department had revoked more than 6,000 student visas in 2025, the “vast majority” of them being for law violations such as cases of assault, drunk driving, burglary, and “support for terrorism.” The State Department says the more than 55 million people who have valid US visas are subject to “continuous vetting” for law violations that could lead to deportation.

● A travel ban issued in June 2025 on people coming from 12 countries, mostly in the Middle East and Africa, and partial restrictions on seven other countries.

NAFSA says visa processing delays are also creating barriers and uncertainty for international students coming to the US. In response, universities, such as ASU, are offering students ways to attend classes digitally or start their studies at partner schools in their home countries while they get things sorted out.

“We are not a school that said here are the four or five things… [that] work best for us, take it or leave it,” says Matt Lopez, Vice President of Academic Enrollment at ASU. Rather, he says, faculty members will meet with students to develop alternative study plans while they work out their student visa situations.

David Di Maria, Vice Provost for Global Engagement at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, or UMBC, says one of the most effective ways to make international students feel welcome is to match them with current students as a way to help integrate newcomers into the campus community while also expediting the acculturation process.

“Buddy programmes are also beneficial to current students as they provide opportunities for international and intercultural exchange without the need for travel,” says Di Maria who co-authored a 2025 NAFSA guide to international student recruitment.

“At this particular time, current students can also support recruitment as they help prospective international students to see past the newspaper headlines and understand what the situation actually is on the ground.”

Not all institutions of higher education in the US handle the welcoming of international students in the same way.

For instance, at Babson College, a private nonprofit institution in a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts that serves about 2,700 students, does not offer a specific orientation program for international students. In a decision made years ago, it decided to instead address the needs of international students during the regular orientation.

Amir Reza, Dean for Global Education at Babson and Immediate Past President for the Association of International Education Administrators, or AEIA, says when he first arrived at Babson in 2000 as an international student adviser, he was sceptical of that approach.

“That was a very distinctive difference at Babson when I arrived, and I tried to understand it, and it made very little sense at the beginning because I was so accustomed to this ‘international students arrived three days early,’” Reza says.

But over time, Reza says he “began to see the magic that my role at that point was to make sure that I'm an advocate for international students throughout the community rather than be the person that gets everything referred to them.”

That also meant advocating for international students in realms such as career development.

“International students are an important part of our community who need guidance and support in their career aspirations,” Reza tells QS Insights Magazine. “They have different needs. That doesn't mean that the international office is the best equipped organization on campus or the experts in career development.

“It's not about the international office alone,” he continues. “It's the entire ecosystem that supports and guides international students.”

While the mainstreaming approach may work for Babson, where a little more than one out of every four undergraduates are international students, Reza says larger institutions with smaller proportions of international students may need a different approach.

“What works for a small selective institution like Babson in the Northeast maybe doesn't translate for a large public that has 50,000 in Ohio,” he says. “If I were an institution where we only had four percent international students, I think you'd have a different game plan and different challenges to try to convince stakeholders to integrate them the same way.”

At Arizona State University, there are not only orientation programmes specifically for international students once they arrive on campus, but in some cases support that can begin with the sendoff for international students as they leave their home country.

Lal, the ASU student, recommended and helped organize such a sendoff for incoming students in Bengaluru, the capital city of the state of Karnataka in southern India.

The sendoff helped ease the anxiety for students from India, and their families, as the students prepared to embark upon their journey to ASU at a time of great uncertainty.

“I felt that recommending to host an in-person send-off would be a great idea, because when families of these students meet, they have a lot more comfort than just thinking that this student is going there alone,” Lal says. “And honestly, most of the discussion was just saying that if anything goes wrong, ASU's there with you.”

NAFSA’s Banks, says the benefits of helping international students transcend improving the lives of the students themselves – there are economic and academic benefits for the US as well.

“During the 2023-2024 academic year, more than one million international students contributed over $43 billion to the U.S. economy and brought important perspectives on and off campus,” Banks says.

“These contributions are in severe jeopardy. Supporting them is not just about doing right by students—it's about ensuring America remains competitive in attracting the world's brightest talent, to the benefit of U.S. classrooms, communities, and economies.”