Notes on Universities of Wisconsin International Enrollment
Key data points about international student admission and enrollment in 2026 at UW-Madison from Zumbrunnen’s declaration include:
- Undergraduate applications declined 10.9% year over year, from 14,433 to 12,857.
- Graduate applications declined 27%. Graduate enrollment is down 20%.
- Third-party groups that sponsor international students in the U.S. fell too, from 27 groups to 14 groups.
- Some countries in the Middle East saw major drops in sponsored applications, such as Saudi Arabia (134 to 7) and the United Arab Emirates (85 to 5). Malaysia went from 65 sponsored applications to zero.
- It takes 5.8 years on average to complete a doctoral degree. All doctoral programs are designed to last more than four years.
- The university expects to have to file more than 2,000 requests each year for students to stay longer, leading to a cost of $600,000 in administrative labor and fees.
Zumbrunnen said graduate students in particular make “critical contributions” to classroom instruction and research. The school has about 3,300 graduate international students and about 550 international researchers. International students make up about 40% of all teaching assistant, research assistant and graduate fellow roles.
