The university is examining ways to combat this year’s drastic decline in foreign student enrollment and plans to issue a report early next semester outlining ways this university can fight the nation’s first substantial decrease in enrollment in 32 years and remain competitive in an increasingly global higher-education market.
University President Dan Mote blames the decline on the difficulty of obtaining a U.S. visa after Sept. 11, along with universities abroad becoming more competitive and aggressively recruiting students to stay in their home countries.
“The whole environment for education has changed a lot from the way it was 10 years ago,” Mote said. “I don’t think it’s going to change back. I think it’s going to get more competitive. Globalization is influencing and becoming stronger.”
And some say the problem may get worse before it gets better. An intelligence reform bill approved by Congress last Wednesday states international students are not permitted exemption from some of the more stringent requirements for entering the country, including a personal interview with a consular officer, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. The consular officer’s role is to review a visa application and determine whether to allow the applicant into the country.
The existing regulations allowed officers to sometimes waive the interviews. The bill’s wording makes it impossible for the department to make future exemptions.
Three university task forces, started after Mote addressed the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee in October, are set to intensively study the issue and report back on foreign undergraduate and graduate students and professional development programs. They will look into all aspects of international students, said Ann Wylie, interim dean of the graduate school and Mote’s chief of staff.
“International students tend to be very quiet,” she said. “Generally, they are in a very precarious position. They feel a little bit less empowered. We, as Americans, feel as if we have the right to be here. We’re just trying to make sure they feel the same.”
The university received 6,777 applications from graduate students abroad this semester, a sharp decline from 10,674 applications last fall.
“We are concerned,” Wylie said. “But we did much better than many other institutions in the country.”
With fewer students applying to the university, there is less competition, and some fear this means a decrease in the quality of accepted students. However, Wylie maintains students who were accepted this year would still have gotten into the university had applicant numbers remained the same.
But if the trend continues, it could have a drastic negative impact on the university, Wylie said. Foreign graduate students are an important component and contribute to the university through research – the main driving force behind the university – by bringing in money and raising overall academic standards.
“People look around at the success of American research enterprises, and in part, that is driven by immigrants,” she said.
Recruiting and maintaining foreign students is left to individual departments and programs rather than the university administration or graduate school. The mechanical engineering department relies primarily on faculty members to recruit graduate students through networking, said Elyse Beaulieu-Lucey, manager of graduate studies.
The mechanical engineering department also started contacting foreign students directly, handpicking the most promising students. While the department has noticed a decline in foreign students, Beaulieu-Lucey said it has not decreased quality.
“In engineering, everyone’s thinking about getting our name out there, with faculty recruitment being the best way,” Beaulieu-Lucey said. “We’ve been doing this already; it’s all about stepping that up a notch.”
The university enrolled 569 international graduate students this fall, down from 717 in fall 2002, according to the Office of Research and Information Planning. This problem isn’t unique here as enrollment drops nationwide.
Enrollment among international graduate students across U.S. college campuses dropped by 2.4 percent last academic year – the first absolute decrease in 32 years, according to “Open Doors 2004,” a report issued by the Institute of International Education.
The report says the nation competes with universities around the world for foreign students, including universities in Britain, Australia and Canada.
“There are a lot of universities in the world, very fine ones, who are recruiting these students very actively. It is a much more competitive environment. The U.S. was in a very preferable position in the past,” Mote said. “They don’t all have to come to us to have a first-class education. Countries abroad want to keep their students there.”
However, some universities have avoided the enrollment drop.
The University of Southern California has the largest number of international students for the third year in a row nationwide, with a 6 percent increase from last year, according to the Open Doors report. International students make up 24 percent of the student body at USC. Columbia University and Purdue University also had a slight increase in foreign students this semester.
Recruiting foreign graduate students at USC also falls on individual departments and programs, said Dixon Johnson, director of USC’s Office of International Services. Its best recruiters are the USC alumni, in addition to four offices the university has in Asia, he said.
“We’re proud of it,” Johnson said. “I think the part of USC’s success is making sure that the university is committed to the value to international education, making sure students have a good experience while they are on campus.”
Johnson added USC is in a major metropolitan area, which gives it a slight edge.
Mote also cited the metropolitan area as a reason this university would appeal to international students.
“We are a large complex and a major research university,” Mote said. “We are 10 miles away from the White House, so it’s a place that’s known internationally.”
