American students’ requests to colleges in Europe, the United Kingdom and Asia are jumping amid high costs and political turmoil

Jenviev Smith also gathered a request for study at a university in the Netherlands-a mysterious goal now, as she says, due to the high costs and political turmoil in the United States, the California-based student spent her headquarters at Santa Rosa Junior College after graduating from high school, all of which are planning her next steps to complete her high higher education.

At the top of its list was the ability to bear the costs. The 19 -year -old said that she initially thought about the presence of the University of California in Santa Cruz, but after reviewing the costs and not knowing what she wanted exactly, she decided to live at home, study and save money. After the 2024 elections, she began to worry about her safety and friends in the United States

I decided to jump. Smith’s search for four -year colleges abroad After that, after narrowing her career on international law, she decided to study in Europe. She said she is preparing for program requests at the University of Liden in The Hague and the University of Utrecht in Utrecht.

“I feel as if going out, I can make a larger difference,” she said, adding that she wants to use an international perspective as a lawyer to combat possible damage in the future.

The political scene transmits attention to colleges abroad

Smith joins an increasing number of American students who are advancing to colleges in Europe, the United Kingdom, Asia and beyond, amid increasing costs and political turmoil in American universities.

Data collected by the International Education Institute shows a steady rise among US students studying abroad over the past five years – from about 50,000 students in 2019 to more than 90,000 in 2024, their numbers last year were available.

Experts say the height can often be attributed to costs, but also to the political scene. Universities have shook all over the country protests. Thousands of international student visas have It has been canceledUniversities and Trump administration were involved in litigation.

James Edge, owner Behind statesThe online consultations and resources that help students who want to study abroad, whose company has worked with Smith, has increased since the elections.

“The shift is amazing in size and in the types of families that continue,” Edge wrote to CBS News.

He said that from November 2024 to July 2025, the site visits moved from 600,990 to 1,534,929, and strategic calls moved from 2,215 to 29,373 in the same period.

American students’ requests to the United Kingdom increased 14 % this year, According to To UCAS, a joint admission service in the UK Higher Education. This was the biggest increase since UCAS started collecting data in 2006.

Installation costs and concentration of students’ debts

Other students focused on costs – one of every six Americans Federal students’ debts, Which now exceeds $ 1.6 trillion, According to To Congress. The average tuition rate in Europe and the United Kingdom costs about $ 9,000 a year, while in the United States, the tuition fees of a four -year public university An average $ 11,000 – 30,000 dollars.

Jysloodet Davis CBS News told her main incentive to study abroad is that she does not want to pay “exorbitant fees for a certificate”.

“I feel that education should be free and accessible,” said Davis, 21, when the idea lasted after watching a video on Tikhak.

She did not know anyone in her high school interested in studying abroad, but since she grew up in a military family and moved a lot, the jump did not feel the installation. She said she found beyond the states after watching Tiktok video, doing some research and using their database to search for schools.

She applied to the American University of Anglo in Prague and chose it in Prague to study business, where she arrived in August 2023. Davis said she paid the price of her studies through a scholarship for military families, savings and some scholarships.

Davis said since the university began, and she has suffered from other cultures, and her best friends from Brazil, Japan and all over the world.

She said since her move to Prague: “I have traveled to 21 countries.”

She also spent a semester abroad at the University of Sofia in Tokyo, which said: “Europe destroyed me, as soon as I saw how the school was in Japan.”

Now in her first year, Davis warned others on some negative aspects of studying abroad. She detailed the troubles of visas and international bureaucracy, and being far from the family.

But her greatest interest was not the feeling of preparing to enter the labor market in the United States without American education, internal training and communication opportunities – which many of her friends who joined the school in the United States had.

Davis said that she felt that her education in commercial marketing and communication was not “equally with American schools, and she might have more opportunities if she had studied international relations. She said she was not sure whether she would return to the United States or stay abroad for some time.

Regardless, Davis said it “has no remorse” about enrolling in the school in Prague and Japan and will encourage other potential students to explore a similar path.

“Certainly go to a billion percent – you can always go further when you are younger,” she said.