A bill moving through the Florida Legislature could impose new limits on international student enrollment at public universities, forcing them to compete with out-of-state U.S. students for a limited number of spots in the state’s top schools.
If enacted, the bill would mark the first time Florida lawmakers have codified a cap on international student enrollment at public universities.
The legislation was first filed in early January by Rep. Kincart Jonsson, R-Lakeland, along with cosponsors, none of whom responded to email requests for comment. A similar but not identical Senate version of the bill, filed by Sen. Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, has yet to be heard in any committees.
Under the proposal, state universities would be required to ensure that no more than 5% of their nonresident population consists of international students from any one country. The measure also mandates that preeminent public universities maintain freshman classes made up of at least 95% Florida residents, based on a three-year average.
Any of Florida’s four preeminent state research universities — UF, Florida State University, the University of South Florida and Florida International University — failing to meet the law’s requirements by July 1, 2030, would be ineligible for certain state funding. The University of Central Florida looks to join this preeminent designation following the Florida Board of Governors' approval in June.
The proposal is a part of a broader push in Florida to prioritize in-state students as public universities become more selective. This year, a similar proposal filed in the Florida House seeks to limit international student enrollment to 10%. That bill has yet to be voted on by any committee.
In the House Careers & Workforce Subcommittee, Jonsson said the motive behind the requirement is to give the state’s top high school students priority admission to the state’s flagship universities, arguing talented Florida students are being denied entrance due to overcrowded admissions.
“We, as taxpayers with our best and brightest, we need to be taking care of them first,” she said. “I can’t understand why anybody would not agree with putting Florida students first.”
As of Fall 2024, international students made up about 8% of UF’s total population. Over the past decade, its nonresident population peaked at 9.5% in Fall 2016 and fell to its lowest at 6.9% in Fall 2020.
India contributed the most international students to UF as of Fall 2023, though just 2.5% of the student body came from there, below the proposed cap of 5% for any single country.
But although limiting students from any one country may not have a dramatic effect on UF, Jonsson’s bill would also require international students compete with out-of-state U.S. students for a limited slot of available seats for non-Florida residents.
Broader trends
Carlos de la Torre, a UF political science professor at the Center for Latin American Studies, said he knows firsthand the role international students play in broadening education. Originally from Ecuador, he arrived at UF as an undergraduate in the late 1970s.
“If the bill passes, it would be a tragedy,” de la Torre said. “What has transformed American education into a place of excellence is its openness to the world.”
De la Torre said he sees little policy rationale for the bill beyond its alignment with a broader national shift in immigration politics. He pointed to heightened state scrutiny of foreign enrollment in higher education and to the recent policy mandating social media vetting as part of the visa process.
The sum of such policies has made the U.S. feel increasingly “inhospitable to those who are not white Americans,” he said.
Florida lawmakers have long pushed for its public universities to rise in national rankings, he said. Limiting international student enrollment could significantly hurt those rankings, because some research programs and science, technology, engineering and math majors rely heavily on international students.
UF data reflects international student involvement in STEM research curricula. For example, international students comprised 62.3% of electrical and computer engineering and 24.2% of computer science majors in Fall 2024.
Student perspectives
“The first thing we are scared of is getting deported,” said Kylie Wong, an 18-year-old UF finance freshman from Hong Kong. “Sometimes, we just lower our voices instead.”
She feels UF has very few international students to begin with, she said, as she rarely encounters any outside of the international student-arranged groups and extracurricular clubs.
However, among the number that do attend the university, there is little they may feel they can do other than “just watch what happens,” Wong said.
Fabiola Babi, a 19-year-old Santa Fe College business freshman from Venezuela, said welcoming international education is especially important for students who do not have viable opportunities in their home country.
“It is very complicated to leave one’s country; it is a very difficult decision,” she said.
Because of proposed bills like these, Babi said she expects fewer foreign students to wish to study at UF, which will, in turn, harm institutional diversity. A variety of upbringings and experiences are essential when fostering a range of perspectives, she said.
Contact Ariana Badra at abadra@alligator.org. Follow her on X @arianavbm.
Ariana is a first-year journalism major and an El Caimán reporter for the Fall of 2025. In her free time, she enjoys reading, spending time with friends and scouring for new songs to play on repeat to an absurd degree.
