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

  • Cleveland High School Breaks Ground on Modernization

    Portland Public Schools in Portland, Ore., recently announced that construction has begun on a modernization project for Cleveland High School, according to a news release. The existing building will be replaced with a new, 300,000-square-foot facility at the same site.

  • Rethinking K-12 Schools as a Continuous Learning Experience

    Most students move through three or more separate facilities during their K-12 journey, yet the built environments they encounter at each stage have traditionally been designed in isolation, with little continuity in spatial language, learning philosophy, or physical resources. Each new school is a reset with different layouts, learning models, expectations, and ways of moving through a building. The next generation of school design is making the case that the first day of kindergarten and the last day of high school can and should feel connected through common support systems and infrastructure in the physical environment.

  • Minnesota District Opens New PreK–12 School

    Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop Schools in Gibbon, Minn., recently announced that construction is complete on a new, $68.9-million school for students in grades PreK–12, according to a news release.

  • URI Cuts Underwater Ribbon on New Ocean Robotics Laboratory

    The University of Rhode Island recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new Ocean Robotics Laboratory at its Narragansett Bay Campus, according to a news release. Two students used a remotely operated vehicle to cut an underwater ribbon in a 30-by-20-foot test tank.