Even as the number of new foreign students enrolling in U.S. post-secondary schools has fallen for the past two school years, the number of international students and graduates on a controversial work permit has hit record levels, according to a new report.

In the 2017-18 school year, the number of active Optional Practical Training permits —seen as an alternative to the H-1B visa — broke the 200,000 mark for the first time, the Institute of International Education reported Tuesday.

The OPT allows foreign students and graduates to work in the U.S. for 12 months, and an additional two years if they’re in science, technology, engineering or math fields.

Meanwhile, the number of new foreign students enrolling in U.S. schools fell in 2017-18 to 271,738, after dropping the previous year from a high of around 300,000 in 2015-16, the data indicate.

Although OPT numbers are moving in the opposite direction, it appears that growth of that work permit has slowed. The 203,462 active OPT permits in the 2017-18 school year represented a 16 percent increase over the year before. That number increased in the previous two years before by 19 percent and 23 percent.

Pew Research reported in July that last year’s OPT growth was the slowest since 2004.

In January, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration published new rules requiring OPT holders to work directly for their employers, where authorities can conduct inspections — not for third-party clients of an employer.

The OPT program has grown larger than the program for H-1B visas, which are subject to an annual 85,000 cap on new visas, Pew reported in May.

Since 2008, when a STEM extension was granted, the OPT has grown 400 percent, according to Pew.

The H-1B, heavily relied upon by Silicon Valley tech giants and criticized for reported abuses, has also become a target for the Trump administration. Federal agencies have said they plan to strip work authorization from spouses of H-1B workers on track to get green cards, and plan to change the H-1B lottery to favor highly educated workers.

Industry group Compete America, which represents companies including Google, Facebook, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, Oracle, Salesforce, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM and Walmart said this month its members were reporting a dramatic increase in the number of H-1B applications denied or delayed.

The International Education Institute produced the foreign-student data in collaboration with the U.S. Department of State, which Tuesday stated its strong support for international-student enrollment in U.S. schools.

“International students studying alongside Americans are a tremendous asset to the United States,” said Marie Royce, assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs. “We need to develop leaders in all fields who can take on our toughest challenges.”