new york the trump administration said on monday that foreign university students will have to leave the country if their classes are all taught online clouding the future of tens of thousands of enrollees and potentially straining budgets at schools struggling to reopen during the coronavirus pandemicabout 11 million foreign students attended us higher education institutions in the 201819 school year according to a report issued by the state department and the institute of international education iie and they made up 55 of the entire us higher education enrollmentmost us universities have not decided yet whether they will have all online classes inperson teaching or some sort of hybrid when classes start again in the fallthe immigration order is likely to affect just a fraction of the total number of students nevertheless two top universities went to court on wednesday to try to stop itforeign students financial contributions are keenly felt in some schools and communities where they pay higher tuition bills than some local students and support real estate markets and local jobsjobs and real estateforeign students contributed 447 billion to the us economy during 2018 the iie report says citing the us department of commercethey supported around 460000 jobs in the united states in the 201819 academic year estimates nafsa an international education advocacy group the majority of these jobs are in higher education itself but accommodation retail transportation and health insurance also benefit it concludesthe financial support for these 11 million students comes mostly from overseas too the iie report says 57 of foreign students say their primary funding comes from their own personal or family sources and another 5 from foreign governments foreign universities or overseas sponsorschina was the largest contributor to the foreign student body in the united states followed by india and saudi arabia the reports sayschinese real estate purchases hit 30 billion in the twelve months ended march 2018 the national association of realtors reports but fell to 134 billion in the next 12 months in part because of uschina frictions about 10 of chinese purchases were made for student use the realtor group said the highest portion for any international buyersrevenues that benefit us studentsforeign students in the united states often pay more to attend school than local students including paying outofstate tuition at publiclyfunded state schools and additional charges aimed at oversees entrantsthese charges brought in more than 10 million in extra annual revenue at purdue university a dean told the institute of higher education in 2015big schools that are household names are likely to have a long waiting list of possible enrollees available to take the place of any international student said terry hartle senior vice president of government and public affairs for the american council on education which represents schools in washington dchowever he said its no secret that many international students pay full tuition and that this is a source of revenue that enables schools to offer student aid and other discounts to other students