The enrollment of foreign students at American colleges climbed in the most recent academic year, according to new visa data, confounding expectations that international-student numbers would drop because of the worldwide financial crisis.
The analysis of visa figures from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, in a report out on Thursday by the National Science Foundation, shows foreign enrollments in American colleges increased by 3 percent in the fall of 2009, to 586,000. The NSF report provides the most up-to-date picture of international-student trends.
New enrollments in science and engineering grew by 4 percent, a larger increase than in recent years, but for the period from 2006 to 2009, science and engineering students accounted for a steady share of the foreign-student population, 44 percent.
However, the number of first-time international students in graduate-level science and engineering programs dropped 2 percent from 2008 to 2009, suggesting that there could be smaller increases in foreign graduate enrollments in future years, the report's authors note. That supports some troubling findings from the Council of Graduate Schools, whose survey of universities last fall found new foreign graduate enrollments unchanged.
Although about equal numbers of all foreign students are in undergraduate and graduate programs, graduate students far outnumber undergraduates in science and engineering. The number of first-time international students in undergraduate science and engineering programs climbed 5 percent in the last academic year.
The figures suggest that findings of more-robust growth on the undergraduate level, first identified in the annual "Open Doors" report published last fall by the Institute of International Education, are holding. The earlier report, which highlighted data from the fall of 2008, said enrollment grew far more strongly at the undergraduate level, jumping 11 percent, than at the graduate level, where enrollments climbed a little more than 2 percent. If the trend continues, undergraduate foreign-student enrollments could surpass those at the graduate level.
Over all, the enrollment of foreign science and engineering students increased from China, India, the Middle East, and Africa, but there were dips in students from Europe, Central and South America, and Canada. Numbers of first-time international science and engineering students, particularly those from India, declined.
Comments
1. your_rights - July 08, 2010 at 04:46 pm
1)586,000 new foreigners. do their contracts require them to leave when and IF they graduate?
2) a steady share of the foreign-student population, 44 percent. Does that mean that only 56% of the science and engineering students are Americans?
3) increased from China, India, the Middle East, and Africa. did they pass the admissions tests or are they taking away seats from eligible American students?
4) is anybody checking their criminal records or their links to terrorists?
2. raza_khan - July 08, 2010 at 06:31 pm
To
Your_rights
1. The answer is yes... but then again.... we keep the brigthest one after we train them and do not send them to their "home country"..... So yes, we want their money first but then their brains as well later.
2. Yes... and you are surprised? Try walking into any Tier I research Chemistry Department and see how many American students can even cut it. The Chemistry departments in this country run mainly on research work done by foreign students.
3. They go through the same standards as GRE, TOEFL and SAT scores. Colleges and Universities are a business. They love getting foreign students as that translates to more revenues. An in-state student pays $4000 per semester where as foreign student would be paying about 2x or even 3x of that. Go figure, why!!!
4. Nope....That is not the College's responsibility. That is the responsibily of the State Department's embassies in those countries.... just like when our American students go to UK or Germany to study.
I hope this answers your questions!
Raza
__________________________
Raza Khan, Ph.D., P.D.
Carroll Community College
Westminster, MD
3. doclaurasmart - July 08, 2010 at 06:32 pm
Oh please. Our universities and the vitality of our society would be in big trouble without foreign students. We don't have enough American students who make the grade. Certainly we need better science education for our own citizens (and illegal aliens-- also our future). I don't know the answer to #4. I hope that a reasonable amount of attention is given to security clearance. But don't assume that American citizenship is a guarantee of anything.
4. shoukav - July 08, 2010 at 10:49 pm
To get admitted in the US institution, international students take all admission tests and English language proficiency tests if their native language is other than English. They also have to declare financial capability to bear expenses of atleast one academic year and so on to get the VISA. Boarder Security keeps in touch with corresponding international program of universities and school, and this is now known as SEVIS.
I am from India, and I remember I had to give my biometric details in Calcutta, and later boarder security checked it all at the port of entry, which was Chicago in my case. :-)
I think we should discuss and talk more about these all rather than lady ga ga!
5. arrive2__net - July 09, 2010 at 01:13 am
According to Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) Survey (under the "new foreign graduate enrollments unchanged" link in the Karin Fischer article above) "Foreign students made up 16 percent of graduate enrollments at the institutions responding to the council's fall 2008 survey...". So based on that, the percent of foreign students in public and nonprofit graduate schools is probably closer to 16%. That CGS reports says "A total of 257 institutions responded to the survey, for a final response rate of 51 percent". The sampling field was the 501 members of the CGS, which included public and nonprofit institutions. (The CGS report is at http://www.cgsnet.org/portals/0/pdf/R_IntlEnrl09_III.pdf ) The CGS report notes that "foreign students" does not include "permanent residents".
The CGS report actually decries the lack of growth in foreign students. When the foreign students pay their way, they no doubt provide many jobs for US educators, and contribute to the US Balance of Trade, so I think having a lot of foreign students is a great thing for the universities and for America. If there are Americans who need the graduate education but can't get a seat, it makes more sense to me to expand availability of graduate education than to limit foreign students.
Bernard Schuster
Arrive2.net
6. raymond_j_ritchie - July 09, 2010 at 05:22 am
When universities get excited about foreign students they are not talking about the armies of students on scholarships. When I was a post-doc in the US it was obvious that the US research effort in Chemistry and Biology would collapse without Masters and PhD students and post-docs from overseas. There were very few american-born people in the labs of whatever racial/ethnic origin. That was 20 years ago. Furthermore, the children of the foreign students and post-docs I knew when I was there are not following their parents into the labs.
When universities talk about foreign students they are blathering about full-fee paying foreign students as a new source of money.
Full-fee paying foreign students cost a great deal of time, money, oversight and labour on the part of universities and in my opinion the programs just about break-even when everything is added up. The spin-doctors lie about the true costs or simply do not know what they are talking about. There is a substantial risk of massive financial failure. Generally, the jobs created are not good quality jobs because like tourism the "market" can evaporate overnight.
7. honore - July 09, 2010 at 09:02 am
raymond, i would agreee with all your observations and add that without foreign (ooooops, I meant, "international", just to be toally PC) students , most specifically from Asia in STEM departments (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math/Physics) would have to shut their doors.
These students typically are the survivor/successes of their homeland educational systems that often recognized their talent in specific areas and then were supported, encouraged and even required to continue in that specific field.
Their lives are pretty rough in the US. Rampant racism, ethnocentrism gone wild and plain ol' American provincialism takes its toll on their lives in the U.S. They are subjected to every conceivable departmental abuse, exclusion from funding (typically reserved for the few home-grown students in the department) and most often made to feel not very welcome here.
Their incidence of emotional, psychological and even physical trauma is a well-kept secret on most campuses. On all campuses I have been on (Ivy, Big 10 & SLACs) they are forced to teach entry level classes of indifferent I-pod riveted, Cell-phone addicted, lap-top mesmerized undergraduates who couldn't care less about making any meaningful connection with this student from whom they could learn so much about, from both an academic and cultural perspective.
As 1 student told me once, when I asked him to try to connect with his Korean TA of a class he was having trouble in..."I have as much contact with that culture as I want at the Quicky Asia 4-U drive-up window".
The fact that the U.S. is practically bankrupt in the ranks of American-born science-oriented undergraduate and graduate students speaks horrendously about our future in these fields IF we didn't have these foreign students on our campuses. No doubt the fact that they pay higher tuition rates is not lost on the administrative bean counters at the Bursar's office either or the upper level administration who continues to ignore the wounded and confused panda outside their plush offices.
American H/E is indifferent to these students on a personal level and only serves to exploit them for the years they are here. And for those that we keep, their lives are not too perfect either. They are still vulnerable to departmental politics and abuse.
Our campus is rife with these students, most of whom ALSO have limited English facility, a fact that is IGNORED by the graduate admissions office that was implicit in opening the door for them and department chairs who just hand them a PRE-determined syllabus and push them into their first of NUMEROUS discussion, lab or tutorial sessions.
When they get are deemed to be sufficiently acclimated to the department (usually 1 semester), they are often shoved in front of a HUGE lecture where their class evaluations will continuously include comments as illuminating as:
"You guyzzz, don't speak 'Inglish' so good"
"Why can't I have an American T/A?
"I hate my foreign instructor, she smells funny"
"I don't know why they can't just stay in their country"
"Aren't we at war with his country?"
sign me...Madison, WI
(home of rampant foreign student exploitation and abuse...and no cares)
8. asarangan - July 09, 2010 at 11:34 am
We have $30k/year stipends plus tuition (total around $45k) for U.S graduate students, but we can't find enough people. Although some of our best students are Americans, the majority of them come with below-average GPA and we waive requirements get them admitted. Many of them struggle through the program, and we waive even more requirements to get them graduated. Compare to foreign students, American graduate students have complicated lives and divided priorities. They have spouse, kids, mortgages and step children and so on. If I need something done in a hurry, on a weekend or late at night, to run a quick experiment in the lab or to finish a report, I often count on my foriegn students. They are available 24/7 and eager to learn new things. They only get $12k per year.
9. d_and_der - July 09, 2010 at 03:39 pm
#7) You are correct and very articulate. Given these realities why would anyone come to America to study. There are high quality higher educational institutions in many countries including India.
1) Quality international students/faculty do a great harm to their home countries by contributing to the "brain drain."
2) #8) If the American students are so lazy and stupid (and I agree to some extent) that says little for us as educators.
3) If the secondary schools are doing such a poor job of teaching the sciences then I suggest we do a better job of purging the system of poor quality teachers.
4) Back at #7 regarding students' evalulation comments.... I guess I have to agree with the students. For example, the inability to speak English or thinking you can speak English but you can not be understood because of poor word pronounciation, etc. is a serious problem for student comprehension and faculty productivity at meetings, etc. And, yes, we are in the middle of WWIII.
5) According to CNN the unemployment rate is 15 million plus.