An ongoing study by international education expert Intead found that of nearly 1,800 respondents from 131 countries who studied in the United States, 64% participated in OPT or CPT during their studies, the majority of whom still live in the United States.
OPT is a popular path for those with STEM degrees. Approximately 77% of survey respondents have earned a STEM degree, and 65% currently hold a STEM-related job.
Joanna Regulska, UC Davis vice chancellor and provost for global affairs, who presented the research at NAFSA, noted the importance of these figures.
“If Congress comes and tells us, ‘No more OPT,’ you know what we have to do,” Regulska said, referring to when the Supreme Court rejected the proposal. “Because this is so important for international students to maintain the right skills,” she said, calling for a complete ban on OPT.
A study conducted by 12 institutions in California, Texas, Kansas and Massachusetts found that international students with a U.S. degree and living in those countries were 21 percent more likely to own or rent a home than domestic students. equivalent.
However, despite these benefits, only 39% of respondents said they intend to continue living or working in their country, while 45% said they plan to leave their home country or move to another country.
About 16% said they plan to further their studies in the United States.
“Think of it as a marketing agency that helps educational institutions recruit international students – established students who speak English well, have already studied in the U.S., live or work in the U.S., and are interested in other degrees.
Ben Waxman, CEO of Intead, also presented the study and suggested, “That seems like a very good focus group to me.”
Intead also analyzed two wage patterns and salaries for specific jobs held by respondents in specific states. The average salary for a data scientist job held by two survey participants in Santa Clara, California was $205,000.
Slightly lower salaries for software developers in Austin, Texas. The average salary for the five survey participants in that position was $131,000, but it is more than $75,000.
This is a ready-made set for students who are good at English. [and] I already studied in the US… That seems like a good target group to me.
Ben Waxman, Intead
“This median wage falls in the third and fourth bands of the Department of Labor’s minimum wage data set,” Waxman said.
He also noted that the data pool was smaller as there are not as many people doing the same work at the moment, but this is the current state of the data and a full report is expected in the summer of 2024.
According to Intead, current data indicates that international students are indeed actively contributing to the economy.
“Like every other worker in America, they are paying taxes, paying for services, mortgages, cars, health care. More data allows us to do more general wage analysis, for more locations or for a larger set of jobs. He encouraged more universities to have their students take the survey.
Additionally, more than half (57%) work at major U.S. companies such as EY, Google, and IBM, and 8% even work at U.S. universities.