One of America’s greatest exports isn’t manufactured in a factory or shipped through a port. It is higher education.
As someone who has spent more than three decades in higher education — as a faculty member, dean and now college president — I have witnessed firsthand that great colleges are defined not only by the students they educate, but also by the ideas they attract.
Throughout my career, one of the greatest strengths of American higher education has been its ability to draw talented students from around the world and provide them with an environment where learning, research and innovation can flourish.
The mid-Atlantic has long been one of America’s great centers of higher education. From community colleges serving rural communities to internationally recognized research universities such as Johns Hopkins, Penn State, Carnegie Mellon, the University of Maryland, the University of Pittsburgh and West Virginia University, our region illustrates what has made American higher education the envy of the world.
Those institutions educate far more than the students who grow up nearby. They attract talented people from across the globe who enrich our campuses and strengthen the regional economy.
A graduate educated in Maryland may launch a biotechnology company in Pennsylvania. An engineer trained at Penn State may work for a defense contractor in Northern Virginia. A physician educated at West Virginia University may remain in Appalachia, serving communities that desperately need healthcare professionals. Talent — and the economic benefits it creates — rarely stays within state borders.
For decades, the United States has enjoyed one of its greatest competitive advantages: Attracting talented students from nearly every nation. International students contribute an estimated $43 billion annually to the U.S. economy, but their greatest value extends far beyond tuition dollars. More than half pursue degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), fields that drive innovation in medicine, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, engineering and advanced manufacturing.
Many remain after graduation, becoming researchers, physicians, entrepreneurs, engineers and educators. Immigrants have founded or co-founded nearly 60% of America’s billion-dollar startup companies and account for nearly one-quarter of U.S. patents.
Researchers at the Peterson Institute for International Economics estimate that a sustained one-third decline in international STEM enrollment could reduce U.S. economic output by as much as $481 billion annually over the next decade.
That advantage is beginning to erode.
International student enrollment declined 17% last year amid growing uncertainty about studying and working in the United States. While colleges immediately feel the effects through reduced tuition revenue, the larger concern is America’s future workforce. Those students will not simply disappear. They will study, conduct research, launch companies and create jobs somewhere else.
The effects extend well beyond the nation’s largest universities. Research institutions generate discoveries that launch new industries. Regional universities educate professionals who meet critical workforce needs. Community colleges prepare the technicians who work alongside engineers, healthcare providers and manufacturers. Together they form an educational ecosystem that supports economic growth across the mid-Atlantic and throughout the nation.
America’s leadership, however, has never depended solely on attracting talented people. It has also depended on giving them the freedom to think, question, discover and innovate.
Students from around the world have long chosen American universities because they represent places where ideas can be examined openly, research can follow the evidence and difficult questions can be debated without political interference.
That tradition of academic freedom was reaffirmed recently when a federal appeals court ruled that portions of Florida’s Stop WOKE Act violated the First Amendment, emphasizing that public universities remain places of inquiry rather than instruments of political orthodoxy.
Academic freedom is not a liberal principle or a conservative principle. It is an American principle. It is the foundation of scientific discovery, critical thinking and intellectual progress. Universities exist to challenge assumptions, test evidence and expose students to competing viewpoints — not to produce ideological conformity.
None of this diminishes the importance of secure borders or sensible immigration policies. Every nation has that responsibility. But those objectives should be balanced with another national priority: Preserving the qualities that have made the United States the world’s leader in higher education, research and innovation.
For generations, America has competed not by keeping talent out, but by attracting it. Our universities became the global standard not simply because they offered outstanding education, but because they combined academic excellence with intellectual freedom and opportunity with innovation.
Those strengths have never been accidental. They have been strategic advantages that fueled scientific discovery, entrepreneurship and economic growth.
If we hope to remain a global leader in research, technology and innovation, we must protect the very qualities that made American higher education the destination of choice for the world’s brightest minds.
Keeping America the world’s classroom is about far more than higher education. It is about preserving one of our nation’s greatest competitive advantages — and ensuring that future generations inherit the same spirit of excellence, openness and innovation that has defined American higher education for decades.
Tom Striplin is president of Eastern West Virginia Community & Technical College, Moorefield, West Virginia. He earned his doctorate degree in higher education leadership and master’s degree in education from Frostburg State University.