The US government has proposed requiring universities to pay up to US$100,000 for each graduate who works in a US job after finishing their education under a new federal rule. The proposal, made public by the administration of US President Donald Trump, targets optional practical training (OPT), a program that lets overseas students work in the United States for up to three years after completing an undergraduate or graduate degree.
About 420,000 international students, roughly one-third of the total, took part in OPT in the 2025–26 academic year, making it the largest pipeline of global talent into the US workforce. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which issued the proposed rule, said it aims to combat fraud, strengthen the integrity of the immigration system, and protect US workers. The DHS projects that OPT enrollment could fall by as much as 44%, with universities paying between $8.4 and $16.5 billion annually.
Economist Michael Clemens of the Johns Hopkins School of Government & Policy in Washington DC projects that enrollment after a bachelor's degree would be halved and that enrollment by master's graduates would be virtually eliminated. He noted that OPT is especially important for international PhD graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, with roughly 70 percent of them participating in 2022. Clemens warned that the combined measures "will obliterate the pipeline" of talent.
The proposal follows earlier Trump administration moves to restrict immigration, including a $100,000 levy on a visa for researchers and other highly skilled workers, after which new applications for those visas fell by 90%. Under the proposal, graduates would pay $70,000 for their first year of OPT, and STEM graduates would pay an additional $30,000 for a two-year extension. Clemens projects that US colleges could lose a combined $2.5 to 4.2 billion each year in tuition and other revenue.
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing