Northwest College welcomes many international students every year.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has created a number of challenges for students wanting to come to NWC to study, Intercultural Program Manager Amanda Enriquez said the college hasn’t seen a drop in the number of international applicants.

“The recruitment is still moving forward, and we have a high level of interest,” she said.

International students coming to American colleges and universities faced a lot of uncertainty this month when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued a notice that, due to the pandemic, it would no longer provide exemptions for students taking online courses. With so many institutions moving classes to online formats, this would have made it impossible for students from other countries to study in the U.S.

In response to the notice, 200 institutions — including Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) — filed lawsuits against the Trump administration, which has since backed off the directive.

Even though the notice has been rescinded, international students put a lot of planning into their immigration to the U.S. The uncertainty the threat created might have deterred some international students from their plans to study in America.

Enriquez said foreign students coming to NWC weren’t going to be impacted by the directive. Most of the fall classes at the college are hybrids, with only part of the instruction delivered in online formats. Those kinds of classes were still going to count as in-person instruction for the purposes of the students’ visas.

“We’re one of the lucky institutions,” Enriquez said. “Our students will be fine.”

She and Kara Ryf, international program coordinator, have been working with the students to make sure their class schedules won’t conflict with visa requirements.

The college is also continuing its international recruitment efforts. They’re working with international student agents and hosting virtual fairs in hopes of maintaining or increasing enrollment from their international students. 

Federal travel bans will impact some of the international students returning to the United States from certain countries. Other countries, such as Japan, are not on a travel ban, but flight schedules have been reduced; that will make travel difficult, but not impossible.

“It’s like a giant puzzle with a lot of moving pieces,” Enriquez said. “And sometimes we don’t get the answers as quickly as we’d like them, but I think everyone is in the same boat right now.”

Fall classes begin Aug. 19, and residence halls open on Aug. 15.