The Michigan Tech Graduate Student Government (GSG) was warned on Tuesday of waning graduate student enrollment, especially among international students, raising alarms for future funding and graduate services. Many of the reasons are out of the universities hands such as visa bans. Online enrollment is rising, but with fees for GSG only paid in person, funding for the program and other graduate services may be at risk.
Dr. Will Cantrell, Dean of the Graduate School, further discussed the issue of declining enrollment, emphasizing that graduate programs make up roughly 20 percent of MTU enrollment, signalling a significant drop in enrollment. International travel bans have led to declining first time admission. Countries like Zimbabwe were placed on the banned list earlier this year, after 68 new graduate students from the country were enrolled for the fall 2025 semester.
Director of Graduate School Operations Jacque Smith provided additional figures. As of Tuesday morning, Michigan Tech has 1,322 graduate students enrolled for spring 2026 semester, a 61 person decrease from the 2025 spring semester. The main group affected are new international masters students with a 48 percent decrease in enrollment, who have had to deal with increased waiting time and stricter interview requirements for receiving a visa. While PhD candidates generally have funding that supports visa approval, masters students will likely continue to be affected by the new policy.
Towards the end of the meeting, elections were held for GSG. Sam Jensen was voted President and will officially take office on May 1, 2026. Umema Ali was elected Social Chair and will begin immediately.
The next GSG general body meeting is on Jan. 27, in Chem Sci 101.
