U.S. schools compete for Saudi students (Saudi royals paying the tuition)

[rainbow4321]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SAUDI_STUDENTS?SITE=TXSAE&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-09-09-02-29-45

Thousands of students from Saudi Arabia are enrolling on college campuses across the United States this semester under a new educational exchange program brokered by President Bush and Saudi King Abdullah.

The program will quintuple the number of Saudi students and scholars here by the academic year's end. And big, public universities from Florida to the Kansas plains are in a fierce competition for their tuition dollars.

The kingdom's royal family - which is paying full scholarships for most of the 15,000 students - says the program will help stem unrest at home by schooling the country's brightest in the American tradition. The U.S. State Department sees the exchange as a way to build ties with future Saudi leaders and young scholars at a time of unsteady relations with the Muslim world.

But some officials say efforts to fast-track educational diplomacy with Saudi Arabia could use additional scrutiny. Clark Kent Ervin, a former inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, says the U.S. government has yet to ensure proper safeguards are in place to do effective background checks on all applicants.

[JI7]

1. the sad thing is that American arabs and Muslims are being

treated like the enemy while the Royal FAmily and those connected to them are free to do as they want.

[fasttense]

2. Well, considering the fact that the American Middle Class

can no longer afford to send their children to college it only makes sense to let the country that had the most conspirators involved in 9/11 use our colleges. There just aren't enough American wealthy to keep the colleges full. :sarcasm:

[brokensymmetry]

3. You're closer to the truth...

than you want to know. In Texas, non-resident tuition
is TRIPLE what the resident rate is. So you can bet
that the state supported (barely supported) schools
love to get that nice foreign money.

BTW - tuition at the University of Texas system
schools is now approaching the level charged at
upper-tier private schools.

I regret to say that your statement:
"There just aren't enough American wealthy to keep the colleges full."
may have been pure truth, with no sarcasm tag needed.

[0007]

4. They hate us for our freedom!

Education democracy style will work for everyone

[rainbow4321]

8. Texas university/$$ stats:

http://media.www.dailytexanonline.com/media/storage/paper410/news/2006/09/08/University/Texas.U.s.Failing.In.Higher.Education.Federal.Report.Says-2263076.shtml?sourcedomain=www.dailytexanonline.com&MIIHost=media.collegepublisher.com

Texas, and the nation as a whole, scored poorly on a National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education report published Thursday measuring state-by-state performances. The United States' higher education quality was measured against other countries, including Japan, Germany, Korea and the United Kingdom.

Texas flunked the report's measure of higher education affordability. Middle- and low-income families are spending a higher percentage of their income on college, the report said. The 40 percent of the population with the lowest income earns an average $18,000 per year. After financial aid, these residents are paying a net college cost of $8,186 a year, nearly 45 percent of their total income, according to the report.


An average 14 out of 100 students in Texas complete certificates or degrees, which is 40 percent lower than the United Kingdom's top-performing rate. The proportion of younger adults with a college degree in Texas is 59 percent of the proportion in Japan, the top-performing nation in this category, according to the report.

<snip>
Modest improvements have been made in the proportion of students completing degrees and certificates, according to the report. The United States compared "very poorly" with other countries in this category.

[Igel]

5. People schooled "in the American tradition" go two ways.

They either like the exposure, or hate the exposure.

Qutb.

[bluestateguy]

6. I don't think we should seek out Saudi students

I mean, if someone wants to come here and study from that country, then fine, but I don't think we should actively seek them out. If a was a Jewish or female professor, or a Jewish of female student, I'd have some real concerns about having classmates from that medieval kingdom.

[acmavm]

7. What? Exactly what do you mean? We should disallow any and all

foreign students into schools because it might offend 'Jewish or female' sensibilities? Two problems there. 1) Maybe some people are offended by the admittance of Jewish students. Should we decide who can and cannot attend a school with that criteria in mind? 2) Females don't automatically find themselves in a dangerous or perilous situation just because a foreign, and in particular, Saudi young person is attending their school. So why should they feel threatened? I don't know of any school that forces females to fraternize with anyone, do you? I have rarely heard of any foreign students going on a rampage and mass murdering and raping co-eds. The Ted Bundy home grown types, yes. Foreign students, if you have some info that no one else has, please share it.

The problem is the cost of education in this country. And the glaring difference that you can see in this instance of the Saudi government enabling their young people to go to college with full aid and the American government telling its young people to pound sand. And even better yet, the jobs these uneducated, untrained American people will be restrictively suited for are being moved outside this country or are being filled with cheap immigrant labor.