US universities report sharp rise in UK applicants

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

The number of UK teenagers applying to Ivy League and top state-funded universities in the US has risen sharply in the past few years, figures show.

Data obtained from seven prestigious US institutions reveals that a major drive to recruit UK undergraduates is starting to pay off.

One leading headteacher told the Guardian that the growing interest came partly from a belief among parents and pupils that "UK universities were creaking at the limits".

Harvard has received 500 applications from UK students for undergraduate courses this autumn, a jump from 370 last year.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/jun/15/rise-inuk-applications-us-universities

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

1. How do UK parents get that kind of money

required for students in F-1 status (as in, international students), since usually a full year's insurance policy must be purchased, as well as full room and board?

I just don't get that.

[valerief]

2. They get national healthcare. nt

[dipsydoodle]

3. ...which isn't free

so how is that material ?

[valerief]

7. Neither is all the WAR free that we get out of our taxes. But they stay healthy

enough to get jobs that pay for college. Congress, as we speak, is taking food from babies' mouths.

[zazen]

4. exchange rate?

In some ways international students are good investment for universities, because they hit them up for full tuition and then can discount the tuition for the neediest American students.

[provis99]

5. these foreigners take the place of American students.

I don't see why we're letting foreign students into the universities at all. It stinks as much as the H1-B visa scam does.

[nodehopper]

6. no, they are not

unlike jobs, university education is not a scarce resource in the US in terms of spaces--there are enough universities of various tiers to go around. It is a scarce resource in terms of people who are able to economically access it (at least without requiring huge student loans), but university/college scholarships in the US are reserved primarily for US citizens and residents, so I really fail to see the reason for your objection.

[provis99]

10. foreign students regularly get assistantships and tuition waivers.

In the case of assistantships, they are taking spots away from Americans. In the case of tuition waivers, it means the American taxpayer is paying for their education. And universities do not have unlimited admissions, I don't know where you get that idea. Universities average accepting only 1 in 3 people that appply, meaning the more foreigners coming over here, the fewer Americans are given admission.

[nodehopper]

11. your objections seem to be based in a lot of unfounded assumptions.

with regard to assistantships--do you mean graduate school? In many PhD programs everyone does teaching assistantship as a part of the training/professionalization process, because one of the skills you are supposed to get as a part of your academic training is teaching in the classroom. Assistantships generally are a way of getting tuition remission, and they are not "jobs" that are available to random Americans--certainly in my graduate program there was no paycheck for discrete classroom hours involved.

But since the article talks about "UK teenagers" the issue in question here pertains to the undergraduate level, and tuition waivers for foreign students at public universities are virtually nonexistent--having worked in higher education for years, I have seen that foreign students will often get financial aid from their own countries, and have tuition waivers through their own national governmental programs. Private universities and colleges may have more tuition wavers or other forms of financial aid, but since they are private institutions, they are not being funded by your tax dollars.

"Universities average accepting only 1 in 3 people that apply, meaning the more foreigners coming over here, the fewer Americans are given admission."

There are four-year colleges and universities that have an open admissions policy for various reasons, and many of them have eclectic, interesting student populations. Most of them are, by the way, public schools, funded by American taxpayers--some examples include University of Maryland University College, University of Texas-Brownsville, Columbia College, Chicago, City College of Seattle, a couple of the CUNY schools in New York, Utah Valley State College, West Virginia University...the list goes on. Open admission means a 100% acceptance rate, as long as you have a high school degree or a GED. Maybe a specific American is not given admission at a specific university, but he or she can always enroll in an open admissions program.

Furthermore, many institutions of higher learning consider cultural diversity a valuable part of an educational setting. Classrooms are enriched by students with diverse backgrounds providing multiple perspectives. There is a reason why study-abroad programs (which, at state universities, ARE funded by your tax dollars) are such a staple of university lives.

I understand the argument that American jobs should be protected, because, especially now, it is such a scarce resource. But Americans who don't go to college don't not go because a Brit took their place. It is not a limited economy in the same sense.

[wickerwoman]

12. +1. That's my experience as well.

In my grad programme overseas students didn't qualify for TAs or pretty much any other kind of assistance and they were changed twice as much as out-of-state students and three times as much as in-state students. The ones who did get funding either got it through scholarships from their own government or took out loans.

The university made such a profit off of them, they had almost no admissions standards for overseas students apart from the language test and some kind of degree.

[pampango]

8. "Us vs Them". How we love to divide humans up into groups of race, nationality, gender

and sexual orientation. Can't treat others equally and maybe share with them - in this case, you study at our schools and we'll study at yours.

[Kurska]

9. Ha! If they want to ship their kid and hundreds of thousands to the united states let them.

Food, board and tuition those costs add up and help the american economy. There are plenty of universities to go around. Worst case scenario more people will go to community college and transfer to a 4 year afterward, which is the more economical choice anyways.