The economic downturn has led many U.S. colleges to review and rethink their international education programs, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports. According to the article, the crisis “has forced some colleges to scale back once-ambitious plans or devise more cost-conscious ways to achieve their goals of globalizing teaching, learning, and research.” For some colleges, this has meant retreating from overseas outposts, while others have reacted to the downturn by reducing international program staff or halting travels abroad. Such actions have fueled concerns that cuts in international activities could have lasting negative effects on colleges’ international profiles and their ability to compete for students and overseas partnerships, the Chronicle notes. "If international is at the top of everyone's B list, it won't get done," says William Lacy, president of the Association of International Education Administrators.

The article further reports that some colleges have nonetheless resisted the economic crisis’ threat to budgets and stuck to their internationalization efforts. John Hudzik, past president of NAFSA: Association of International Educator, notes that colleges that have made study abroad and international engagement a “selling point” and schools that have realized revenue from international work are generally more likely to invest in international activities. Allan E. Goodman, president of the Institute of International Education (IIE), adds that “money isn’t everything” when it comes to internationalization efforts: “College leaders recognize…that they can't afford not to educate students for a global world,” Goodman says.