Trump administration visa policies and growing uncertainty around immigration rules have contributed to a sharp decline in international applications to Columbia University's journalism programme, prompting the school to pause admissions to its Master of Arts course for a year.
Columbia Journalism School Dean Jelani Cobb said the M.A. programme will undergo a critical evaluation during the admissions pause as the school looks to redesign the degree, which was launched in 2005.
“The dynamics of visas and all those other kinds of things were part of the consideration,” Cobb told Reuters, while adding that the school also needs time to assess how the programme should evolve.
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Reuters reported that the link between the admissions slowdown and US visa policies, as well as the one-year duration of the pause, had not previously been reported.
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People familiar with Columbia's admissions process told Reuters that international students account for roughly half of the M.A. programme's enrolment.
The Trump administration last year temporarily halted appointments for new student visas before restarting them with expanded screening of applicants' online activity. The administration said the additional scrutiny was aimed at identifying potential national security threats.
Columbia was also among universities that faced pressure from the administration following pro-Palestinian campus protests in 2024. The university later agreed to pay more than $200 million to settle federal investigations and restore most of its suspended federal funding.
A separate rule introduced this year sought to restrict how long foreign students and journalists could remain in the US without applying for extensions. A federal judge blocked the rule before it took effect, describing the rationale behind it as exceptionally weak, Reuters reported.
The visa environment has already affected individual prospective students. Indian journalist Kaushik Raj, who was admitted to Columbia's separate M.S. programme in data journalism, was denied a US student visa last year, according to The Intercept, Reuters said.
The M.A. programme is designed largely for mid-career journalists looking to deepen their expertise in areas such as politics, business and science. It is smaller than Columbia's M.S. programme, which caters to students with less journalism experience.
Lower enrolment has already led to changes within the M.A. course, including the combination of science and politics seminars during the 2024-25 academic year, according to people familiar with the matter.
Columbia has also announced a new two-year, part-time online M.S. programme. While such a course could potentially allow international students to study without obtaining US visas, Cobb told Reuters that the new programme was unrelated to the M.A. admissions pause.
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The review comes as journalism schools and news organisations face broader challenges, including artificial intelligence, declining search traffic and job cuts across the industry.
Columbia estimates the nine-month M.A. programme costs about $120,000 before financial aid, while its one-year M.S. in Data Journalism costs around $180,000. Around 80% of students receive some form of financial assistance, according to the school's website.
Cobb said the school is also considering a new fundraising strategy for the M.A. programme and could explore introducing a part-time version.
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