The Open Doors 2024 Annual Data Release is now live. Click here to watch.
Since its founding in 1919, the Institute of International Education (IIE) has conducted an annual census of international students in the United States. For the first 30 years, IIE and the Committee on Friendly Relations Among Foreign Students carried out this effort jointly. IIE’s first independent publication of the results of the annual census was titled Education for One World, and it reported on data for the 1948/49 academic year. It was renamed the Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange in 1954/55, and in 1972 began receiving support from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Information Agency (USIA), now part of the U.S. Department of State. Open Doors has long been regarded as the comprehensive information resource on international students and scholars in the United States and on U.S. students studying abroad.
The classification of countries and other places of origin into regional groupings used throughout Open Doors is based primarily on the U.S. Department of State’s list of world regions and states. The complete list of places of origin within each world region along with the historical four-digit Open Doors country code and the two-letter code of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) can be found here. The SEVIS codes for the territories of Gaza Strip (GZ) and the West Bank (WE) are combined as Palestinian Territories in the Open Doors classification.
Beginning with Open Doors 2006, the Eastern and Western Europe sub-regions were combined into a single Europe category, and Turkey and Cyprus, which were previously classified in the Middle East, were reclassified in the Europe category.
Beginning with Open Doors 2010, the countries listed in some African sub-regions were reclassified to better reflect modern geographic reality.
Beginning with Open Doors 2013, North Africa was grouped with the Middle East to form the Middle East and North Africa region. The remaining African sub-regions were renamed Sub-Saharan Africa. Also beginning in 2013, Bermuda was reclassified from North America to the Caribbean sub-region.
The fields of study used in Open Doors 2024 are from Classification of Instructional Programs, 2020 Edition, published by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the U.S. Department of Education. In addition to the NCES fields, IIE has a separate category for Intensive English Language. Between Open Doors 2015 and Open Doors 2020, NCES’s Classification of Instructional Programs, 2010 Edition was used.
Before Open Doors 2015, the U.S. Study Abroad Survey fields of study did not follow the NCES’s Classification of Instructional Programs, 2010 Edition. As such, figures reported in prior years of the study abroad survey may not be entirely comparable to the current classification. In addition, IIE added a separate category of International/Global Studies to the study abroad survey. This field, combined with the NCES Classification of Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, allows for deeper analysis of study abroad trends from these fields.
The complete fields of study codes used in Open Doors can be found here.
The 2021 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education for institutional types was used for the first time in Open Doors 2022. The 2021 Carnegie Classification revised institutional categories and, as a result, some institutions have a new institutional classification.
As Open Doors uses the Carnegie system for its institutional-level analyses and rankings, comparisons within institutional categories from previous Open Doors reports are not always possible. Historically, Open Doors has used the following codes:
For the first two decades of the survey, Open Doors used enrollment data from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to calculate the proportion of international students in U.S. higher education. From 1987/88 to 2006/07, IIE relied on the College Board for U.S. total higher education enrollment. Beginning with Open Doors 2008, IIE reverted to using enrollment data from the NCES. Due to this change, the proportion of international students in U.S. higher education reported in previous editions of Open Doors may differ.
The NCES enrollment data used in Open Doors calculations are current at the time of publication and are not adjusted to reflect subsequent revisions made by NCES.
The voluntary Open Doors online surveys were administered to U.S. higher education institutions for all four surveys as well as independent intensive English programs for the IEP survey. As in the past, closed (non-active) institutions and institutions indicating that they did not have international educational exchange were excluded. Open Door’s high response rates were obtained through multiple rounds of email follow-ups as well as extensive outreach and collaboration with partner higher education associations to encourage participation.
Throughout this publication, totals for international students, U.S. study abroad totals, international scholar totals, IEP enrollment totals, and the various percentages reported were calculated directly from campus-based survey responses. Student counts for other variables, such as field of study, place of origin, and so forth, were determined by imputation, as not all campuses were able to provide detailed breakdowns for all variables. Estimates of the number of students for each variable were imputed from the total number of students reported. For each imputation, base or raw counts were multiplied by a correction factor that reflected the ratio of the difference between the sum of the categories being imputed and the total number of students reported by institutions. For this reason, student totals may vary slightly within this publication. In addition, due to rounding, percentages may not always add up to 100.0 percent (regardless of whether or not numbers were imputed).
While most institutions reported academic level breakdowns by place of origin, others were unable to do so. Open Doors uses the overall academic level breakdowns, not the academic level by place of origin, as the basis for calculating changes from year to year and for analyses.
In addition, to account for potential instability in annual institution-level counts, estimates based on counts from recent reporting years are sometimes used to account for non-reporting institutions that have a history of reporting to the Open Doors surveys and whose previous years’ figures were not themselves estimated. For each Open Doors survey, these estimates are based on a prior year’s number adjusted by the percent change among institutions that reported in both the prior and the current year.
The data collection methodology currently in use was designed to produce stable, national estimates of international education activity. Analysis for units that reflect relatively small numbers of students (such as certain places of origin, fields of study, sources of financial support, etc.), and especially those that are cross-tabulated with other variables, may reflect greater error variation than variables with a larger response base. Although estimation refinements will continue to be made for future editions, the general practice of estimating based on previous years’ numbers is entirely consistent with past years’ Open Doors analysis protocols in place since the 1970s.
Open Doors is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. Government and supported in its implementation by IIE.
IIE’s mission is to help people and organizations leverage the power of international education to thrive in today’s interconnected world. IIE’s work focuses on advancing scholarship, building economies, and promoting access to opportunity.
The U.S. Department of State leads America’s foreign policy through diplomacy, advocacy, and assistance by advancing the interests of the American people, their safety and economic prosperity.
EducationUSA is a U.S. Department of State network of over 430 international student advising centers in more than 175 countries and territories. EducationUSA is committed to promoting the diversity of U.S. higher education to help international students find their best fit.
USA Study Abroad is a U.S. Department of State entity focused on expanding and diversifying study abroad opportunities for U.S. students to gain critical skills in support of our national security and economic prosperity.
