University Business - August 2007 - (Page 42)

The International Top 20 In 2005-2006, the number of international students studying in the United States remained steady from the previous year, totaling 564,766. Here are the 20 most popular places of origin for these students: LOCATION # OF STUDENTS IN U.S. 1 India 2 China 3 South Korea 4 Japan 5 Canada 6 Taiwan 7 Mexico 8 Turkey 9 Germany 10 Thailand 11 U.K. 12 Hong Kong 13 Indonesia 14 Brazil 15 Colombia 16 France 17 Kenya 18 Nigeria 19 Nepal 20 Pakistan 76,503 62,582 58,847 38,712 28,202 27,876 13,931 11,622 8,829 8,765 8,274 7,849 7,575 7,009 6,835 6,640 6,559 6,192 6,061 5,759 fell from almost 1,300 to under 1,000. Last fall, the University of NebraskaLincoln counted 1,279 foreign students, compared with a peak of 1,517 in 2002. “We heard from our admissions oﬃce that the number of applications was going down, and that the number of visa denials and nondecisions had increased,” says Peter Levitov, associate dean of international aﬀairs. Those “nondecisions” further extended a student visa process that had lengthened from less than a week to months and sometimes up to a year and now included a mandatory interview at a U.S. consulate in Since two-thirds of the international students at U of Nebraska-Lincoln are in the graduate school, their reduction has left research assistantships unﬁlled and some course sections uncovered. “If we lose graduate students, we’re losing a lot of talent,” points out IIE president Allan Goodman. “The quality of research is going to suﬀer. And who is going to teach our premed courses?” There’s also the less tangible cost of a student body that’s not as diverse, Goodman continues. “If American students don’t know how others from Brazil, Chile, or ‘There were … people here who suffered through the FBI knocking on their doors. A couple of them came to me saying, “I’ve been interviewed. Should I hire a lawyer?” ’ —Bruce Rindler, Boston University Source: Open Doors Report, 2006, Institute for International Education, www.iie.org suﬀered through the FBI knocking on their doors. A couple of them came to me saying, ‘I’ve been interviewed. Should I hire a lawyer?’ ” Other schools, large and small, have paid a price in shrinking numbers. Graduate school applications to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign fell 30 percent in the years after 9/11. Duquesne University in Pittsburgh saw its undergraduate and graduate foreign student population shrink from a combined 500 to 450. At West Virginia University, the numbers dropped from 1,412 to 1,264, and at the University of South Carolina, enrollment 42 | August 2007 the prospective student’s native country, as well as a lengthy search of terrorism “watch lists.” By the time many foreign students were cleared, Levitov adds, they had missed the semester for which they had enrolled. “The ﬁrst year [after 9/11] was very difﬁcult,” says Columbia University’s Associate Provost Rick Tudisco, who estimates that between 50 and 75 of his school’s 1,400 new foreign students experienced signiﬁcant delays. “The ﬁrst year we were tracking problems at foreign consulates and at the ports of entry into the Untied States. The State Department was totally overwhelmed by the slew of requirements and procedures.” China think diﬀerently, they won’t understand how the world sees us or how to become citizens of the world themselves.” Lessons Learned The road to recovery has been paved with lessons learned along the way, starting with changes to the State Department’s visa process. “It’s improved enormously,” says Columbia’s Tudisco. “They needed to become familiar with the regulations themselves and to streamline the process of identity and security checks, and they needed to do all this both stateside and overseas. Now that we’re out on the other side, it’s better than it was. But the transition was rocky. They were building the plane as they were taking oﬀ.” The department has added personnel to deal with F1 visa applications, and students now can move ahead of other visa seekers. Those nondecisions have all but disappeared. Still, cautions ACE’s Green, there is “a lot of work to do on the visa process. There’s a balance between openness and security. Does a two-minute interview with a consular oﬃcial really show whether you’re a security risk?” IHEs have also had to do their share in attracting and keeping foreign students. universitybusiness.com Lost Business Costs The decline in foreign students has exacted a hefty price on several fronts. These students and their families contribute more than $13 billion a year to the American economy, much of it in the form of tuition. “What we’ve lost most are the undergraduates, and what most institutions are really looking for are full-paying international students, observes Madeleine Green, vice president for international initiatives at the American Council on Education. http://www.iie.org http://universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - August 2007

Contents
College Index
Company Index
Advisory Board
Editor's Note
People Watch
Sense of Place
Viewpoint
Admissions
On the Hill
Future Shock
Independent Outlook
Facility Focus
Wanted: Foreign Students
Service With a Star
Beneficial Benefits
Addition By Subtraction
Report from EduComm 2007
Report Card
Internet Technology
What's New
Calendar of Events
Direct Connect
End Note

University Business - August 2007