By Ruth A Pagell
(31 Oct 2025) The two issues addressed in The Chronicle of Higher Education’s September webinar were international students and academic freedom. Both topics continue to be in the higher education news, and both topics are covered in Ruth’s Rankings.
INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS: Fees paid by international students are important to many universities. Some universities and private colleges depend on students receiving government grants or tuition money. Other institutions have been able to bring in all their international students. PhD students and international researchers have been subsidized to contribute to the U.S. scholarly knowledge base. All types of students and researchers require visas. This is not a new issue, especially for students from India and Africa. In September 2025, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services increased the cost of H -1B visas for international researchers to $100,000 payment to accompany any new person entering on research visa. Students upgrading to H-B1 status do not have to pay. A new rule from the Department of Education allows PhD students to stay for four years while PhD theses often take longer than four years to complete.
Data collection is lagging, as reported by the International Trade Administrations’ International Visitors Arrivals program in an October 2025 release. Bhatia and Fan provide the most comprehensive report using this government data.
International Trade Information, International Visitors Arrivals Program https://www.trade.gov/i-94-arrivals-program
NOTE: Other countries are taking advantage of the U.S. policies. Ruth’s Rankings 65 focused on individual universities. The top four universities were from Hong Kong. In May, 2025 Hong Kong set a quota of 40% international students. In September 2025, the quota was raised to 50% for 2026 (Sharma).
Resources: International Students
Bhatia. A. & Fan, A. (6 Oct 2025). Nearly 20 Percent Fewer International Students Traveled to the U.S. in August. The data shows the steepest decline in August international student arrivals since the pandemic. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/10/06/upshot/us-international-student-travel.html
Ruth’s Ranking 65.(30 Jun 2025). Specialized rankings in an age of uncertainty: Times Higher Education’s most international universities in the world. https://librarylearningspace.com/ruths-rankings-65-specialized-rankings-in-an-age-of-uncertainty-times-higher-educations-most-international-universities-in-the-world/
Sharma, Y. (17 Sep 2025). Cap on non-local undergrads raised to 50% of student body. University World News. https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20250917150848995
ACADEMIC FREEDOM: I am interested in academic freedom, first writing about it in 2016 and most recently in 2023. The Chronical interviewed Risa L. Lieberwitz, a professor in labor and employment law at Cornell University and a member of the Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure for the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). Lieberwitz explained that “Advancing and protecting academic freedom is the AAUP’s core mission” . Trump’s administration is directly interfering with the existing principles. She stated that in Trump style, the administration is attempting to strike deals, a synonym for direct interference. It is making direct demands not only on faculty’s classroom speech but also on their social media speech. Lieberwitz concluded by saying that the administration was trying to dismantle democratic institutions.
There have been many other articles on the topic of free speech. One example is an article in University World News by John Aubrey Douglass, “Could things get darker still for US higher education?” (Douglass 2025). Douglass is a senior researcher at Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education. While many university presidents have been willing to interact with the administration, Chris Eisgruber, the president of Princeton University, has taken a strong stance on the importance of free speech. He published a book on free speech, Terms of Respect: How colleges get free speech right. Eisgruber is positive about the existence of free speech in higher education. He has been promoting the book through podcasts. One example is an interview with Public Broadcasting Service (Bennett).
There are three more Chronicle webinars this year and they are open to the public.
Resources: Academic Freedom
AAUP ( 2025). Issues in Higher Education / Academic Freedom. https://www.aaup.org/issues-higher-education/academic-freedom
Academic Freedom Index: https://academic-freedom-index.net/research/Academic_Freedom_Index_Update_2025.pdf
Bennett, G. (30 Sep 2025). PBS Newshour. https://www.nepm.org/shows/newshour/clip/terms-of-respect-1759266575
Douglass, J. A., ed (2016). The New Flagship University: Changing the paradigm from global rankings to national relevancy. Basingstoke UK: Palgrave MacMillan.
Douglass, J.A. (27 Sep 2025). “Could things get darker still for US higher education?” University World News. https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20250927061320624
Eisgruber, C. L. Sep (2025). Terms-Respect-Colleges-Speech-Right. Basic Books https://www.google.com/search?q=eisgruber+%22Terms+of+Respect%22&rlz=1C1RXMK_enUS971US971&oq=eisgruber+%22Terms+of+Respect%22&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCTU1Mzg3ajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
John Aubrey Douglass. John Aubrey Douglass | Center for Studies in Higher Education. (n.d.). https://cshe.berkeley.edu/people/john-aubrey-douglass
Ruth’s Rankings
Freedom goes beyond universities and free speech as seen in other Ruth’s Rankings articles. Ruth’s Rankings first introduced academic freedom in relation to rankings in 2016 based on a book by Douglass (2016).
The U.S. has been falling in its academic freedom rankings since 2020 from the top group to ranking in the lower 50% today.
Ruth’s Rankings 21: Flagship Universities in Asia: From Bibliometrics to Econometrics and Social Indicators. In 2016 RR 21 Introduced several freedom indexes, including the rankings of Asian countries. Hong Kong was overall number one. https://librarylearningspace.com/ruths-rankings-21-flagship-universities-asia-bibliometrics-econometrics-social-indicators/
RR 48 (31 Dec 20 2021). Ruth’s Rankings 48 Part 2: Country and Company Environmental Rankings added new sets of Indicators to our vocabulary. https://librarylearningspace.com/ruths-rankings-48-part-2-country-and-company-environmental-rankings-add-new-sets-of-indicators-to-our-vocabulary/
RR 54: Academic Freedom and its relationship to university rankings (1 Mar 2023) https://librarylearningspace.com/ruths-rankings-54-academic-freedom-and-its-relationship-to-university-rankings/
Note: The webinars are hosted by two Chronicle editors, Sarah Brown and Rick Seltzer.
Other Resources:
For a focus on international implications see Inside Higher Education’s global news https://www.insidehighered.com/news/global. The newsletter is owned by Times Higher Ed but located in Washington D.C. Located in the U.K. is University World News, which includes articles on both topics in its news releases. https://www.universityworldnews.com/page.php?page=UW_Main
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