DEI has been in the news for a while after the U.S. announced policy changes. Here’s a primer on what it means for international students aiming for American universities.
What is DEI?
A term once thriving in the folders of HR offices has been pushed to the storage, with people, it is relevant to, scrambling to understand how DEI policies in this new era are going to affect them. Well, here is just one more place you can first understand what DEI is and what it’s reformation means to the world.
DEI, or Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, has been around in various reincarnations and forms, aiming to create an environment where everyone can be recruited and thrive irrespective of their gender, race, religion, and region in the United States of America. Specifically, the executive order signed by Lyndon B. Johnson, not only protected the rights of minorities against discrimination and wrongdoing, but also required a medium to large organizations to implement affirmative action to hire minorities and women.
In the context of college admissions, DEI aims at initiatives to make student bodies diverse (Read How MBA programs increase diversity). Which essentially means that key factors like minority race, region, gender, sexual orientation, etc. can play a favourable role in determining admission decisions, just as traditional GPA and test scores would. In that, diversity could become a key ingredient in tipping the scales in favour of candidates belonging to a certain community, race, gender, sexual orientation, etc., to provide representation.
However, in recent times, since the crowning of the latest presidency in USA, President Trump’s executive order of squashing DEI funding to schools has managed to also consequently dissolve many of the DEI related bodies. Here are some ways it may consequently affect the average international student applying to higher studies in the US.
Even more pressing was the hold on new F1 visa appointments causing the entire international student movement to hold their breaths. Though the hold was lifter later, the bottleneck in the pipeline remained. Several MBA applicants who got into top US business schools had to drop or defer their plans due to non-availability of visa appointment slots.
Let us take a look at how the changing landscape around DEI policies will impact the current and future international students in 2026 and beyond.
How DEI restrictions will impact international students
Restrictions on race-conscious hiring
With the signing of two executive orders, DEI policies aimed at race-conscious hiring, financial aid, and student support such as scholarships have been made illegal. Instead, the focus, according to the executive orders, should be based on merit and accomplishment, thereby eliminating any possibility of race-exclusionary practices in reverse. Especially, schools partnering with “The PhD Project”, a non-profit organization that helps underrepresented groups get business doctoral degrees, are under attack.
Concerns among students
According to a study done by the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) in Texas USA since the restrictions on DEI began in Florida in 2023, students and guardians feel a lack of support for marginalised communities. Enrolment numbers have dropped from 2022, except for Asian Americans. Students are typically worried about safety against racial or discriminatory experiences.
Funding opportunities
One of the biggest concerns is the discontinuation of ethnicity, race, gender, or sexuality based scholarships from federal sources. Affording higher education is especially a deterring concern for many international students. Currently Fulbright scholarships, the Nehru-Gilman fund, Critical Language and other financial aid supporting studies, research and academic collaborations, have been discontinued or put on hold.
Read Scholarships for African MBA applicants
Halt in Academic Pursuits
Research funding, including scientific research, has become complex. There are reports of scientific funding by the National Science Foundation (NSF) being halted to promote ventures that support other nationalistic pursuits. A federal budget cut of nearly 55% NSF funding, proposed soon, might cut a whole lot of money for various disciplines. These disciplines typically source students from across the globe.
Ripple effects beyond DEI
In October 2025, there was another federal memo to universities capping the number of international undergraduate students to 15% and a country cap of 5%. While this cap is currently for undergrad, we’ll need to see if it gets extended to masters students in the future. There’s also an additional layer of scrutiny for internationals applying for F1 visa, including a requirement to disclose social media accounts.
What can international students do about it?
The number of international students entering the US fell by 30%-40% in fall 2025 due to the sweeping changes that have been announced in 2025.
Not to despair, the way international students can overcome the lack of the traditional DEI support is to focus their attention to more inclusive programs offered by their universities, not exclusively labeled as DEI. Students can seek academic support, counseling services, student body support, and more.
Ultimately, international students do provide a massive backbone to funding in universities. Thus universities would need as much of, if not more, support from international students as they need from their universities. Common sense dictates that the visa restrictions, funding constraints, and other setbacks will be settled in the future.
While navigating through such uncertain and stressful phases, having a mentor such as MBA Crystal Ball can be helpful. As with every year, our consultants helped many applicants get into elite business schools in the US and across the world, with quite a few getting scholarships.
Reach out for help if you are targeting international MBA programs: info@mbacrystalball.com
Here’s some more fodder for the reading brain:
– Female applicants, from India, spelling success in MBA programs
– INSEAD MBA diversity scholarship with an average GMAT score
– Top MBA programs for women across the globe
Image: Nathan Dumlao (Unsplash)
