Top News

The drop is a blow to the bottom line for Central Missouri, a small public school that lives near its margins with an endowment of just USD 65 million. International students usually generate almost a quarter of its tuition income.

International student after international student informed the University of Central Missouri this summer that they were unable to obtain a visa, and several had trouble obtaining an interview for one. Despite demand being as strong as ever, half as many new international graduate students attended fall classes as did last year.

The drop is a blow to the bottom line for Central Missouri, a small public institution that runs close to its margins with an endowment of just USD 65 million. International students usually contribute almost a quarter of its tuition income.

US tightens visa rules for international students: Key highlights

"We can't subsidize students as much at home if we don't have as many international students who are generating income for us," said Roger Best, the university's president. Pockets of a fall in international students have disturbed colleges throughout the US. Colleges with high foreign student enrollments and low endowments have minimal monetary padding to insulate them from sharp declines in tuition dollars.

International students account for more than 20 per cent of enrollment at over 100 colleges with less than USD 250,000 in endowment per student, based on an Associated Press analysis. They are mainly small Christian colleges but also comprise big universities like Northeastern and Carnegie Mellon.

How much the change in enrollment will be is not known until the fall. Some have projected a drop as much as 40 per cent, which would have a massive effect on college budgets as well as the broader US economy.

International students are under increased scrutiny on a variety of fronts As part of an expansive initiative to reconfigure higher education, President Donald Trump has pushed universities to restrict their enrollment of international students and increased scrutiny over student visas.

His administration has attempted to deport foreign students engaged in pro-Palestinian activism, and new student visa appointments were suspended for weeks as it cranked up screening of applicants' social media.

The Department of Homeland Security announced on Wednesday that it will suggest a regulation that would impose new restrictions on how long foreign students may remain in the US The policies have brought severe fiscal uncertainty for colleges, George Mason University professor Justin Gest, who researches the politics of immigration, stated.

Foreign students cannot receive federal student aid and usually have to pay full freight for tuition — twice or three times the in-state rate that domestic students pay at public universities. 

"To frame it more dollars-and-cents, when an international student comes in and pays USD 80,000 per year in tuition, that gives the universities the room to give discounts in terms of fees and more scholarship funding to American students," Gest stated.

A Sudanese student barely made it to the US for the start of classes Ahmed Ahmed, a Sudanese student, nearly didn’t make it to the US for his freshman year at the University of Rochester.

The Trump administration in June imposed a travel ban on 12 nations, including Sudan. Diplomatic officials told Ahmed he would still be able to enter the US because his visa had been issued prior to the ban. When he attempted to board a flight to depart for the US from Uganda, where he spent the summer with relatives, he was denied and told to contact an embassy regarding his visa.

Over 300 Texas school districts and charter schools have reported plans to implement the state-created Bluebonnet reading and language arts curriculum, characterized by its integration of biblical passages with more traditional phonics and mathematics education. As per information obtained by The Texas Tribune through an open records request from the Texas Education Agency (TEA), about one-quarter of Texas' 1,207 charters and districts are reviewing the curriculum, though figures might fluctuate before the time it is released formally sometime early in the fall.

For the majority of districts, it is not a matter of ideology. Administrators point to agreement with state learning standards, access to more funds, and deterrence of punitive state action on the basis of student performance on standardized tests. For $60 per pupil, Bluebonnet offers a short-term financial incentive to fiscally strapped districts, offering available funds previously out of reach.

Controversy and academic concerns

Universal application of the program aside, Bluebonnet has been a subject of mass controversy. The criticism is that its reading instructions downplayed historical facts by depicting the Founding Fathers such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to be morally against slavery without mentioning their ownership of slaves. Scriptural citations, including recitation of the biblical creation order, provoked concerns among groups that monitor civil liberties for what they perceive as potential infringements on students' rights against coercion in religion.

Its advocates note that the curriculum historicizes religion in US and world history and offers students carefully crafted, grade-level comprehension of abolition, Juneteenth, the Civil Rights Movement, and Black Texan achievements. Adoption is far from uniform, however: districts and charter schools invoke not challenging enough academics, i.e., phonics and science of reading, even while they implement the curriculum's math.

Implementation is difficult. Teachers have to weigh state alignment against the requirement to retain inclusiveness for multicultural students. Rural, politically conservative districts have found curriculum less difficult to implement, but urban districts are behind. Teachers are encouraged to preview lessons in advance and involve parents openly, thus religious content does not lead to segmentation or feeling excluded in class.

Bluebonnet reflects larger policy currents in Texas, where public schools are increasingly linked with right-wing cultural values. Its enforcement reveals the thin line between funding incentives, state-directed curricula, educational quality, and cultural inclusion. Districts' solutions to these tensions in the months ahead will define classroom life as well as the ongoing national conversation on the place of religion in public schools.

For over a century, the term "back to school" called up near-ritual: The familiar old line of students streaming through doors again into classrooms after summer break, their satchels full of new notebooks, their footsteps clattering off halls lined with chalkboards and lockers.

It was a rhythm that governed communities, economies, and family life, a temporal anchor around which the school year revolved. But it's all gone, disappeared quietly, irrevocably. School no longer has a single building, single calendar, or single pedagogy. It is in libraries and community centers, on electronic screens, in micro-learning centers, and in the very places where curiosity has room to spread.

The rigid, prescriptive, one-size-fits-all old beat has been replaced by a new one: One of choice, flexibility, and the unshakeable resolve of families who will not let tradition define the limitations of their children. In this new brave world, "back to school" is not going back; it is forward to a place where education is not about compliance but about possibility, about flexibility, and about promise of what each child can be.

Transition calendars

The peace of school calendars is past. Labor Day no longer is a hint about when a school year starts. Some schools extend instructional days and school years, and others employ rolling calendars or online semesters. The fragmentation of the school calendar is a sign of an even more profound intellectual change: Education no longer is controlled by tradition but by the needs of students and communities. Learning is adaptive, continuous, and tailored, lightyears from the assembly line days.

The age of choice

Perhaps the most revolutionary shift is who attends which school. Barely more than three-quarters of US students nowadays still retain the district-mandated public school, a whopping decline from almost 90% of previous generations, Forbes states. Parents are rushing to the charter schools, private scholarship schools, cyber schools, and microschools, creating an environment of alternatives to the long-time monopoly in education. These schools offer flexibility, imagination, and individualized learning experiences that allow parents to merge education with the child's talent, objectives, and method of learning.

The unequal bases of opportunity

Systematic inequalities exist even with increasing alternatives. Traditional district schools are supported by a combination of state and local taxes, but the great majority of choice programs have much smaller budgets and the additional cost of facilities. Charter and option schools typically receive a relatively small per-student amount compared to district competitors, limiting their capacity to expand or innovate. These inequalities not only restrict access but are also troublesome under the constitution because unequal spending literally denies families equal promise of an education under the constitution.

Policy and the promise of reform

The policy landscape is gradually changing to suit the needs of education for our times. State transformation and federal policies have increased scholarship accessibility and created new windows of opportunity. Legislation won't fill the gap, though. Actual change comes from diverting funds in place so that money follows the student and not the school. Properly implemented, these kinds of policies can maximize choice results, induce healthy competition, and drive innovation throughout the system.

The revolutionary potential of equity

Choice has introduced revolutionary gains even to collapsing systems. Alternative program students are more engaged, satisfied, and achievement-oriented, and traditional districts improve their offerings in response to competition. Imagine an entire system that is equitable where all students have access to services that they are entitled to, e.g., special learning needs students with disabilities or special students. Imagine a day when alternative schools and charters get equal facilities and operating budgets like district schools. The result would be a revolution: An education system focused on the student, not the bureaucracy. Back to school

The ceremony of returning to the same classroom one day is anachronistic.

Instead stands a living, student-focused vision of learning attuned to individual needs and free from tradition. Families have embraced this new reality; policymakers are now catching up. The challenge before us today is one of budget and policy alignment: that education must be equitable, accessible, and organized to reach the promise of each and every child. The "back to school" days are behind us. The "forward to education" days are here. Whether or not kids will succeed will depend upon whether or not leaders will get on board—or hold on to antiquated paradigms that keep kids fenced in. 

Any phone detected in the possession of a student within school premises will be confiscated. (Photo: Pexels)

The United Arab Emirates Ministry of Education has come out with a prohibition on mobile phones within school compounds.

The ban, according to the Ministry, is to guard students from the potential dangers of carrying phones and encourage good behaviour in a secure learning environment.

Schools must confiscate phones

The Ministry also provided guidelines to schools for inspection and confiscation of phones in possession of students.

"Schools must conduct routine inspection campaigns to identify mobile phones. The inspections have to follow the law and be respectful of students' rights. Inspectors cannot touch students; they can only search their bags and personal effects, and students themselves have to present their items to the inspection committee in order to be transparent and respect rights," the school circular stated. 

Parents to be notified

As stated by the Ministry, in case a phone is found in the possession of a student on school premises, it will be seized and the parents alerted to the offense. Parents are also required to sign the official documents attesting to the seizure and return of the phone.

For the first offence by a student, the phone will be taken away for one month, and for repetition, the phone will be taken away until the end of the academic year.

Schools must create awareness

Along with the steps, schools have been instructed to increase awareness programs among students and parents, in particular, regarding confiscation periods and disciplinary actions.

It also threatened schools that non-compliance with these directives is an administrative offense that can expose them to accountability.

Mobile phones are also prohibited in private schools

Although the Ministry of Education directive is for public schools, a number of private schools in the UAE have also issued a similar ban on mobile phones for students.

Dubai-based Emirates International School (EIS) has imposed a ban on the usage of mobile phones within the classroom from this academic term. 

"Students will be required to hand over their phones to the management or refrain from bringing them to school. This (usage of mobile phones) will not be permitted at all until they complete their classes, then retrieve them," Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor, owner of EIS, said.

The US Department of Education has formally revoked Biden-era guidance that allowed Federal Work-Study (FWS) funds to be used for some political activities on college campuses. With the new regulations, the money must now be earmarked for work only that offers students actual career experience.

What's different?

Students will not be compensated under FWS for jobs that are related to political or voting activities. These include jobs as poll workers, overseeing voter hotlines, helping out at polling stations, or coordinating rallies—even though the activities were once deemed to be nonpartisan.

"Federal Work Study is intended to give students the chance to gain valuable real-world experience that will help them succeed in the labor market, not as a means of subsidizing political activism on our college and university campuses," said Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent.

Why was the policy reversed?

This ruling unwinds Biden-era guidance that increased the ability of students to engage in civic action through federally funded work.

The new directive complies with Executive Order 14248, Protecting the Integrity of American Elections, and reiterates the Higher Education Act's ban on the use of federal funding for political activity.

New voter registration rules

Colleges are still required to make a "good-faith" effort to provide voter registration forms to qualified students, but no longer need to give forms to persons suspected of being ineligible, like foreign students.

The Department has also encouraged institutions to advise students on voting regulations, including:

US citizens only vote in federal elections.

It is a federal offense to vote more than once or on false pretenses.

Impact on students and colleges

Students who had counted on work-study jobs that were attached to civic activity might have to seek out other jobs or volunteer placements. Schools and universities will need to revise and restart their work-study job listings in order to meet the new standards.

Civic activity programs on campuses, like voter registration drives, will certainly persist but will need new sources of funding outside of FWS appropriations.

Why it matters

Institutions are to institute these changes at once and ensure students know which jobs are still eligible under FWS. Colleges also are being urged to seek other means of voter education and civic engagement without federal funding.

The EducationUSA Fair 2025 at Mumbai saw over 35 U.S. accredited schools in person interacting with Indian students interested in studying in the United States. The education fair was held on August 16, the fair was a gateway to pivotal information on admissions, scholarships, visa application, and school planning—enabling aspirants to make informed choices about their higher education futures.

Organized together by EducationUSA—the official US government advisory system—and the US Consulate in Mumbai, the fair had a good number of Indian students looking for undergraduate, postgraduate, and PhD programs. Prestigious institutions like Arizona State University, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, NYU Tandon School of Engineering, and University of Washington participated in the fair.

The highlight was the directness of learning students gained through verbal interaction. Most prominent issues related to prospects for scholarships, course availability, visa longevity, student housing, and long-term career prospects. Students started showing greater interest in emerging fields such as data science, psychology, and business—in addition to traditional STEM fields.

Representatives like Bradley University's Holly Bland praised the figures, noting that Indian students were becoming open to lesser-known but quality schools. "They're not merely fixated on Ivy Leagues—they're interested in value-based educational possibilities," she said.

Visa issues, though, were foremost in mind. University counselors strongly urged early application and suggested that students prepare carefully for visa interviews. Sarah Burke of Canisius University emphasized that students need to be able to show clarity regarding the programs selected, knowledge of the institution, and academic aspirations within a brief three-minute interview.

For students like Lamees Kazi, who wants to pursue a Master's in Structural Engineering, the fair was not an event—it was an experience that decided her choices. "University reps' interactions gave me real clarity on what to expect educationally as well as in terms of costs," she told The Free Press Journal.

The EducationUSA Fair reminded us that successful student engagement—founded on counseling, openness, and academic advising—can actually convert dreams into action