Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

IE Releases Intensive English Program (IEP) Data on 2017 International Student Enrollments

  • 06/11/18

NEW YORK, NY – Overall, 86,786 international students participated in an intensive English program (IEP) in the United States in 2017, according to recently released IIE data. IEP programs in U.S. are offered by higher education institutions and independent providers, and are one way for international students to initiate their education in the United States. In 2017, 51 percent of IEP students intended to further their study in the United States following the completion of their program.

The latest figures represent a 20 percent decline in IEP enrollment from 2016 to 2017, following a decline of 19 percent the year prior. IEP students studied in the U.S. for an average of 14 weeks in 2017, consistent with the average of 14 student-weeks in 2016. Fluctuations in IEP enrollments are contingent on a variety of factors, but the sharpest declines can be traced to changes in foreign government-funded scholarship programs.

The number of IEP students from Saudi Arabia, the top-sending place of origin from 2010 to 2015, fell by 46.5 percent from 2016 to 2017. Declines in Saudi enrollments are attributable to changes in Saudi Arabia’s government scholarship program. Mexican IEP student enrollments also fell by 58.6 percent, after growing 40 percent from 2015 to 2016.

China is currently the leading place of origin for IEP students, sending 19,756 students in 2017, despite a 7.7 percent drop in enrollment numbers. Of the top-10 sending countries, Brazil was the only place of origin to see an increase in enrollments at 11.1 percent, a reversal from the previous two years of declining Brazilian IEP enrollments after the end of Brazil’s Scientific Mobility Program.

About the Institute of International Education
For nearly a century, IIE has been a world leader in international education. We work to build more peaceful and equitable societies by advancing scholarship, building economies and promoting access to opportunity. As a not-for-profit with 18 offices and affiliates worldwide, IIE collaborates with a range of corporate, government and foundation partners across the globe to design and manage scholarship, study abroad, workforce training, and leadership development programs. For more information visit www.iie.org.

Featured

  • Florida District Completes Construction on New Leadership Institute

    Pinellas County Schools near Tampa, Fla., recently announced that construction is complete on the new Dr. Michael A. Grego Leadership Institute, according to a news release. The district partnered with Rowe Architects for the project’s design and with Skanska for construction services.

  • Designing for Every Mind

    Learning environments have the power to shape not just what students know, but who they become. When a school is designed with genuine empathy—for the full range of ways students think, sense, and engage with the world—it becomes more than a building. It becomes a catalyst for growth, confidence, and belonging. That is the animating idea behind neurodiverse design, and it is one that is transforming how more architects and designers are thinking about school design.

  • Architectural Power for the Modern Campus Landscape

    For generations, an outdoor classroom only required a textbook and a patch of grass. Today, not only has the laptop replaced the printed pages, the rise of agile learning has turned campuses into study halls with students listening to lectures and researching topics from quads, gardens, and plazas. The challenge for architects and facility managers is to provide connectivity without cluttering the landscape with visual eyesores or creating safety hazards with extension cords.

  • Moline-Coal Valley School District to Consolidate Two Schools into New Facility

    The Moline-Coal Valley School District in Moline, Ill., recently broke ground on a new elementary school that will consolidate the students and staff from two existing schools, according to local news. Robert Ontiveros Elementary School will serve as the new home for Lincoln-Irving Elementary School and Willard Elementary School.