More and more American colleges are seeking to recruit students overseas, hoping to internationalize their campuses and to increase tuition revenue. Like many newcomers to such recruiting, Angelo State University, part of the Texas Tech University system, is short on funds and on staff, with just one full-time employee dedicated to the work: Meghan J. Pace. As the 6,400-student institution's international-student-services counselor, Ms. Pace, who has held the job for two years, recruits foreign students, processes their admissions and visa applications, and advises them once they arrive on the campus.
Q. How many international students do you enroll?
A. Now we have 60, but over the years, we've seen a decline. And I really think that's because our university has not always been proactive in bringing students to our campus. We've always just hoped they showed up.
Q. It's a big world. How do you find the right students for Angelo State?
A. I travel overseas for three weeks, maybe a month, in the fall and in the spring. I do a lot of research, looking at where students are coming from, who's studying in Texas, what countries are sending the most students to study in the U.S. And I talk with people at other schools and say, "Hey, what's successful for you? Have you found a good spot, a good location, a good idea?"
Q. What do you say to a student from India or Vietnam to persuade him to study at a college in West Texas that he may not have known about before?
A. That's probably the biggest challenge that we face, because we don't have a well-known worldwide name and we're not a huge school. But our university has some selling points. I think our cost [$13,450 for tuition and fees] is very attractive; it's very affordable to attend school here. Also, we offer scholarships for international students. Our class sizes are very small, and students get to know their professors.
Q. Do you have programs to support students once they arrive on the campus?
A. We have an excellent host-family program of volunteers from the community. And I think that's important because when you're coming from all the way around the world, it's nice to know you're going to have a little bit of a family.
Comments
1. cabby329 - January 13, 2010 at 12:56 pm
As a college prep teacher for high school-level Chinese students, I know that they look for schools in a very different method than American students do. The international students that I have worked with tend to be less focused on the cost of tuition and cost of living and more interested in whether the school offers the majors that they want to take (especially for the Chinese students: business, finance, math, engineering). Additionally, they look for student groups that they can join to become better acquainted with the student body and the local community (Chinese Student and Scholar Societies, international student forums, etc). Name recognition is important, but if the school offers a convincing and thorough package of majors and location, they will definitely apply.
2. hms3683 - January 20, 2010 at 11:39 am
Almost always absent from the discussion of recruiting foreign students is the social cost of displacing an American student to make a place for the student who will bring that higher tuition. While we need highly educated people here, our best programs are graduating students who capture American knowledge and practice - only to carry it back to their native land. The result is that we educate problem solvers who solve other peoples' problems.