International student admissions surge across UC system amid funding uncertainties

We analyzed admissions and tuition data for all nine UC campuses to identify patterns and understand trends.

Smrithi Senthilnathan | Staff

UC Berkeley international student acceptance rates sharply increased for the 2025-26 academic year cycle, with offers to first-year international students jumping 92.5% and transfers rising 142.5% compared to last year.

Yet campus’s international student applications increased by just 5% from 26,028 applicants to 27,336.

International students nationwide have faced heavy scrutiny from President Donald Trump’s administration, which has enforced social media screenings and terminated student visas. Most recently, the federal government proposed enacting a four-year limit on student visas, which may jeopardize the ability of international students to pursue a graduate degree.

“Campuses recognized that international students could face greater financial and/or administrative challenges to enrolling at U.S. universities, including UC, and therefore increased admissions to account for those who might not ultimately be able to enroll given these challenges.” wrote UC Office of the President, or UCOP, spokesperson Stett Holbrook in an email. “The (admittance) numbers reflect that.”

What it costs to be an international student

International students are ineligible for need-based university financial aid. The Daily Californian compared tuition and fees for resident and non-resident students over the last decade to visualize changes over time.

From 2015 to 2025, campus nonresident student tuition increased from $41,000 to $60,000, which is an increase of about 47%. During that same time period, resident student tuition increased from $16,000 to $23,000, or by about 37%.

In the last year alone, non-resident tuition and fees jumped by around $5,000, with resident fees and tuition increasing by around $2,000.

From state and federal levels, UC faces financial crisis

In a letter to state officials Sept. 3, UC President James B. Milliken warned of a possible attack on the university’s federal funding. Milliken wrote that UC receives more than $17 billion in federal funding annually and would need “$4-5 billion,” from the state to minimize the consequences of a potential cut.

According to campus spokesperson Janet Gilmore, costs across UC’s “core-funded operations” are expected to increase by $500 million this year, which will be partially covered with new revenues from the university’s Tuition Stability Plan.

UC researchers — acting independently of the university — have been engaged in ongoing legal battles with the federal government that will determine the fate of millions of dollars in federal research funding.

However, the California state legislature delayed nearly $130 million in general funding for the 2025-26 academic year until 2026-27. And in the past decade, the percentage that state general funds have contributed to the UC operating budget has decreased.

Funding from a 2022 compact formed between the university and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, which promised the UC an annual 5% increase in its base budget to meet certain enrollment criteria, has also been deferred. Specifically, the state legislature postponed $240.8 million in funding for the 2025-26 academic year until 2027-28.

The 2025-26 base budget from the state is $4.6 billion. A 5% increase, then, would translate to $230 million and result in a total of $4.83 billion in funding for the following academic year.

The compact requires UC campuses to increase resident undergraduate enrollment by 1% annually through the 2026-27 academic year. For UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC San Diego, the compact asks to limit nonresident undergraduates to no more than 18% of undergraduate enrollments.

However, according to the text of the compact, the 18% cap is contingent on the state providing ongoing funding to replace lost tuition that would otherwise be paid by the nonresident supplemental tuition that out-of-state and international students are required to pay.

H.D. Palmer, a spokesperson for the California Department of Finance, said this provision is “more to protect the universities” from additional financial strain.

State lawmakers deferred $31 million in backfill funding to supplement lost nonresident tuition for the 2025-2026 school year until 2027-28.

Despite the $31 million deferment, Holbrook said in an email that the university will “continue to meet its obligations and advocate for more state funding.”

According to Palmer, the compact funding was deferred due to state budget deficits in 2024 and 2025. He said deferrals allow the state to “achieve savings in a given budget year without eliminating (just delaying) funding for institutions.”

“We’re not going to expect huge movement from the universities if we’re not providing them with sufficient funding,” Palmer said.

Projected revenue from international students

The Daily Cal analyzed publicly available data on admission offers for the 2025-2026 school year across all UC campuses. Although data on yield rates — or the number of students that accepted their admission offer — is not yet available for the current academic year, the Daily Cal averaged yield rates from each campus throughout the last five years to estimate the revenue that UC would receive from international students in the incoming freshman class.

UC Berkeley and UCOP spokespeople both denied that financial considerations drove the surge in non-resident admissions offers.

Except for UC Santa Cruz, the Daily Cal’s projected revenue from international students in the incoming freshman class spiked across all UC campuses. From international fees alone, UC could gain an estimated additional $114 million this year, which is $83 million more than the compact funding the state deferred.

This surge in international student admissions is not the first time UC admissions data has been impacted by the terms of the compact.

Per the original terms of the compact, UC campuses were expected to meet yearly enrollment targets on top of overall five-year targets. However, several UC campuses did not meet their targets in 2023-24.

Discussions with the state resulted in an agreement that UC could prioritize overall targets irrespective of yearly targets going forward. In order to do this, UC modified its 2023-24 enrollment targets late in the admissions cycle and utilized waitlists to increase first-year enrollment. UC Berkeley, for example, had a 24.7% waitlist acceptance rate in 2023-24, compared to 0.9% in 2022-23 and 0.33% in 2024-25.

“While we’re on track to meet our commitment to the state,” Gilmore said, “it will be difficult in future years if the state doesn’t honor its promise to fully fund the University.”

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