The U.S. is falling behind by failing to attract solid numbers of international students, according to Amit Sevak, CEO, ETS – an education data and insights company.

WorkingNation sat down with Sevak at SXSW EDU 2023 in Austin.

“We’ve been very fortunate to have international students coming from so many parts of the world that today are leaders of companies, universities, nonprofits, researchers, scientists. With this fall off in international students relative to other countries, we risk – as a country – falling behind on this war of students and a talent for the workplace.”

Sevak says American colleges are in crisis. “There are fewer and fewer American students that are going on to college, and so many colleges are shutting down. By the end of this decade, estimates are in the dozens, if not hundreds, of colleges are going to be shutting down simply because there aren’t enough students going into those colleges.”

 He continues, “We want more American students to go to college, to finish college, and to launch their lives with a college degree. But at the same time, we believe that there’s a huge opportunity to encourage international students to come in. International students actually help American colleges by filling in seats.”

Learn more about ETS.