Here are the latest Viet Nam-related stats from the SEVIS October 2021 update. (You can also access these data using this interactive map.) The picture is decidedly mixed with equal portions good, bad, and ugly.

There are currently 24,011 students from Viet Nam at all levels, mostly in higher education. Viet Nam ranks 6th among places of origin:

China: 257,764

India: 189,268

South Korea: 44,902

Canada: 29,745

Brazil: 26,730

Vietnam: 24,011

Taiwan: 19,751

Saudi Arabia: 19,609

Nigeria: 16,437

Mexico: 15,415

There was a 7% decrease from June to October, much of that coming from secondary students. This is modest compared to some of the other top 10 places of origin.

Two significant trends jump off the screen:

1. The number of boarding and day school students dropped from 2,600 in June (end of the 2020/21 school year) to 1,790 (-31%) in October in the new school year. Graduating seniors were obviously not replenished with new students. They now comprise 7.5% of total enrollment at all levels, down from 10.1%. This steady decrease is the result of the pandemic both in the major host countries and, more recently, in Viet Nam with the arrival of the fourth wave last spring. Parents are more inclined to play it safe and keep their children close to home.
2. There was a rather dramatic 29% decline in community college students – from 6,045 in June to 4,313 in October – and a concomitant 8.16% increase in Vietnamese studying at four-year institutions from 11,342 (43.9%) in June to 12,268 (51.1%) in October. Vietnamese CC students now comprise 18% of total enrollment at all levels, down from 23.4%. That’s the continuation of a shift from two-year to four-year institutions because of the lower average price point and the increasing number of choices that students and parents have now vs. five or 10 years ago.

In addition, the number of students enrolled in language program continues to decrease, also a recent trend. (532 or 2.2% of the total.) There are two main reasons for this: 1) it’s difficult to get a student visa to study English in the US; and 2) there are more and better opportunities to study English at home now than in the past.

Finally, the gender gap remains the same, more or less. 53.8% of all Vietnamese students in the US are female and 46.2% male.

Shalom (שלום), MAA