In another knock to America’s education-to-workforce pipeline, colleges across the US are tightening restrictions around Curricular Practical Training (CPT), following multiple warnings from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last month.
In two broadcast messages on August 12 and August 24, the administration doubled down on the fact that CPT – the program allowing international students to take internships and work placements in the US – must only be granted “where training is an integral part of an established curriculum”.
“This means that all students – foreign and American – are required to participate in practical training if they are enrolled in an established curriculum where practical training is integral,” clarified DHS.
The department said it had observed a rise in CPT authorisations that appeared to violate existing regulations and warned schools that failure to comply could result in universities losing their ability to enrol international students.
Colleges across the US have subsequently suspended any new internships, co-ops or other work opportunities for international students unless CPT is a degree requirement, with Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Penn among the many to tighten CPT rules.
While the regulations have always stipulated that the internship or practicum must be an “integral part of an established curriculum”, stakeholders say the latest warnings signal stricter enforcement and a new interpretation of the rules.
The messages make clear that the training must be required of every student in the program, that elective courses do not qualify, and that the degree must be “an impossibility” without it.
“Years of accepted practice, and SEVP’s own tolerance of that practice, are what has changed,” said Boston College professor Chris Glass.
He explained that while the guidance is not a rule in itself, “it comes with the threat of decertification, personal perjury liability for the DSO, and a new tipline for DSOs to report their own leadership to Homeland Security Investigations”.
“Nobody is waiting to see whether SEVP means it, because the messages put the liability squarely on the staff member who signs the I-20,” said Glass.
While abuse of CPT has been acknowledged by the sector, stakeholders say the changes deliver a “heavy blow” to current international students while diminishing the attractiveness of the US offer as a study destination.
Eddie West, assistant vice president of international affairs at California State University, Fresno (CSUF), said the disappointment among students was “palpable”, with those currently authorised for CPT having had no reason to anticipate their work experience would be abruptly curtailed.
“That change means less experience and resume building opportunity and, in many cases, less income to defray the costs of their education.
“It’s like a carpet being yanked out from beneath their feet with almost no forewarning,” said West.
“No one was ever legally promised CPT. But the American pitch to international students has been work experience inside the degree,” said Glass.
Ironically, to some extent our profession has itself to blame
Eddie West, California State University, Fresno
What’s more, while rulemaking takes years, a memo that reminds schools of a standard already on the books is the most efficient tool available to the department, Glass noted.
With approximately 130,000 students using CPT in 2024, “for most of them it is the for-credit internship that leads to the OPT job that leads to the H-1B petition,” said Glass. “Remove the first rung and the education-to-workforce ladder is weakened.”
The changes add to the growing number of threats to work opportunities for international students in the US, including a $100,000 fee for Optional Practical Training, set to come into force imminently after clearing White House review yesterday.
A senior employee at a large public land grant university, speaking to The PIE News under anonymity, said his institution was following the most restrictive reading of the policy, but that he expected the issue to end up in a lawsuit.
“All of these policy changes make the US far less desirable as a destination,” he said, reporting an 8% reduction in international enrolments this year, with at least the same decline anticipated in 2027.
While experts have warned of the damaging repercussions the new policy interpretation will have on international students and America’s ability to attract them, they acknowledged that the sector has been slow to denounce abuse of the program.
“The hue and cry about the Department of Homeland Security’s announcements is only natural, because schools and students who play by the rules are being hurt by DHS’s overcorrection,” said West.
“But ironically, to some extent our profession has itself to blame.”
He said the sector had mostly turned a blind eye to the proliferation of “Day one CPT” operations undermining the integrity of the program, after revelations emerged of schools abusing CPT to profit from students enrolling in their institution with the promise of using CPT as a quasi-work visa.
