Global village moves to U.S. campuses

[Bravo Zulu]

The number of students from abroad jumps 8%; Chinese lead growth spurt

Kevin Snider, chancellor of Penn State New Kensington

A young undergraduate arrives jet-lagged from India on his first trip to America to begin study at one of this country's meccas for higher learning, Penn State University.

Only the taxi from the airport takes him not to the campus of Joe Paterno, the vaunted creamery or research halls with tens of thousands of students, but instead to a woodsy and remote tract in Westmoreland County where some 820 students, mostly commuters, await.

Penn State New Kensington, which serves towns such as Shaler, Natrona Heights and Apollo, seems an unlikely destination for students from Mumbai, Beijing and Seoul. But the campus and several other Penn State branches are making a push to attract such overseas students, including those from India, the largest exporter of students to the U.S.

Experts who today are releasing a national report on the surge of international students say one of the reasons for that growth is active recruiting by campuses not normally associated with foreign visitors.

The number of international students studying in America grew by 8 percent to 671,616 during 2008-09, the biggest one-year percentage increase in almost three decades, according to the annual "Open Doors" report from the Institute of International Education. The growth, much of it fueled by an increase in undergraduates from China, follows gains of 7 percent and 3 percent the last two years, according to authors of the comprehensive survey of approximately 3,000 campuses.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09320/1013778-298.stm##ixzz0X3h5HISL

[marmar]

1. Makes sense. American students can't afford it anymore.....

nt

[amandabeech]

2. I remember paying $450/semester at U-Mich back in the mid-70s.

Got out of the place for about $3100 a year.

Tuition must be closing on $10,000 a year now. Nothing but health care has gone up by that much, and certainly wages and most salaries haven't.

I don't know how anyone affords post-secondary education these days.

[marmar]

3. Yep.....When I graduated U-M undergrand in 1994, it was a bargain at $6,800 a year.....

..... in-state, tuition only.

[amandabeech]

5. Those were the days!

It's hard to see Michigan's economic problems be reflected in what could be a major draw for companies seeking to relocate--high quality, low priced college and grad school. Ah well, it is still cheaper than many private colleges and universities.

[damntexdem]

4. It's one of the few American exports still going strong: higher education.

In a former masters program I taught in, 75% of the graduates were doctors from India.

And there is a large proportion of international students in very many graduate programs at American universities.

But there are downsides:
1) in science and tech, the large proportion of international students reflects the lack of preparation, and motivation, of domestic students to study in those fields;
2) visa restrictions have already killed part of the market and may in future allow other countries to out-compete American universities.