International student enrolment at US public universities has increased as state funding has declined, according to a recent working paper that suggests how institutions have dealt with budget cuts.

The , published by聽the National Bureau of Economic Research, estimated that a 10 per cent reduction in state appropriations for universities between 1996 and 2012 was associated with a 12 per cent increase in international undergraduate enrolment at public research universities.

The figure for international enrolment jumps to 17 per cent when only the most 鈥渞esource-intensive鈥� public universities are taken into account.

The paper, 鈥淎 passage to America: university funding and international students鈥�, said that the figures show that a 鈥渟ignificant set of public universities were able to take advantage of the expanding pool of potential students from abroad to provide a stream of tuition revenue that partially offsets declining state appropriations鈥�.

鈥淚n the absence of the pool of foreign students, many universities would have faced larger cuts to expenditures and potentially greater increases in in-state tuition charges,鈥� it added.

ellie.bothwell@tesglobal.com