Boston ? A steep decline in graduate school applications from foreign students has university administrators pushing the federal government to reform the visa process. Their argument: The trend could cost U.S. schools much-needed revenue and research help, and make America seem isolated in the eyes of the world.

International graduate student applications for this fall are down 32 percent compared with a year ago, according to a recent survey, and schools are extending application deadlines so they don’t lose students still negotiating U.S. bureaucracy.

Meanwhile, in public comments and private lobbying, universities are urging federal officials to speed up visa applications, stressing that America’s role as a beacon to the world’s students could be in jeopardy.

Officials from several California schools and the Department of Homeland Security discussed foreign student matters Tuesday at a gathering in San Diego.

And representatives from a handful of prominent schools, including the presidents of Yale and Princeton, met recently in New York to explore ways to use the influence of their trustees to help make their case.

‘Effective diplomacy’

Universities acknowledge that the importance of foreign students is not obvious to the public, which has security concerns after one of the Sept. 11 hijackers entered the country on a student visa. Some may wonder why foreign students take up 600,000 slots in American universities in the first place.

But administrators insist those slots are as important now as ever.

“This is one of America’s most effective forms of diplomacy,” said Douglas Kincaid, vice provost for international studies at Florida International University in Miami, where foreign enrollment is down 10 percent. “We’re educating people who will be in influential positions in science and industry and government around the world.”

Drops nationwide, Kansas

More than 90 percent of graduate schools reported their foreign applications for this fall declined, according to a survey of 113 universities last month by the Council of Graduate Schools.

The number of international students enrolled at Kansas University has dropped steadily since 1993, when the number was 2,067. International enrollment has dropped from 1,720 in fall 2001– prior to 9-11 — to 1,585 in fall 2003.

Foreign students often pay higher tuition, and soak up little financial aid because they must demonstrate financial self-reliance to get a visa. More than 75 percent of their funding comes from outside the country, according to the Institute of International Education.

Foreign students also contribute $12 billion to the U.S. economy, according to IIE.

International students at Kansas universities bring more than $113 million into the state’s economy every year, according to a 2002 study from the Jones Institute for Educational Excellence at Emporia State University. As much as 80 percent of that money comes directly from the students’ home countries, the study found.

Contributing factors

Experts cite several factors for the dip in applications, including diminished esteem for America abroad, rising tuition at U.S. schools and increasingly competitive alternatives in Europe and Asia.

But the difficulty, or perceived difficulty, getting a student visa quickly appears to be the primary cause.

“It’s really frustrating because there is no basic logic to getting a visa,” said Moussa Dao, an FIU computer engineering student whose two brothers have been unable to get visas to follow him here, and who hasn’t returned home to Ivory Coast since 1999 for fear he would not be readmitted.