AP PhotoOhio State students Siyi Chen, left, and Xiaoli Lin, two of OSU’S 115 first-year undergraduate students from China, stand inside Knowlton Hall on campus Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008. Universities are reporting record enrollments of Chinese students this fall because of aggressive recruiting and China’s booming economy.Their enrollment grew by 8 percent in the fall of 2006 and by 20 percent last year, according to Institute of International Education figures being released Monday.
Individual universities surveyed by The Associated Press also are reporting high growth this year.
Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., already boasting a strong international student program, is enrolling 290 Chinese students, up from 127. The spike was more than 400 percent at Ohio State University, the nation’s largest campus, with 115 undergraduates from China compared with 20 last year.
Xiaoli Liu, an OSU freshman from Beijing, said Chinese universities offer solid academics but can’t compete with the overall experience of an American college, including more opportunities for out-of-class activities, an open learning environment and diversity.
“In China you can seldom find people from the U.S., but in the U.S. you find people from all over the world,” Xiaoli said.
The influx is part of a solid and welcomed rebound in the number of international students coming to the United States, with its giant pool of 4,000 colleges and universities.
Numbers of international students had dropped alarmingly due to competition from other countries and tighter visa procedures after the September 2001 terrorist attacks. But the latest IIE report finds 7 percent more students at U.S. universities than a year ago, at an all-time high of 624,000.
India again sent the most students, followed by China and South Korea. A snapshot survey the institute did of campuses this fall found that 55 percent reported increases in students from China, the most from any country.
“The misperceptions have finally been laid to rest – that it’s impossible to get a visa,” said Peggy Blumenthal, IIE’s chief operating officer.
International students and their families contribute more than $15 billion annually to the U.S. economy, according to a separate survey by NAFSA, the Association of International Educators, also being released Monday. And they typically pay higher out-of-state tuition, so they’re an important revenue source for colleges at a time when the supply of college-age American students is beginning to crest.
Universities also like the international students’ cosmopolitan flair.
“We’re thrilled about the cultural benefits, the educational benefits it brings to our resident students,” said Mike Brzezinski, Purdue’s associate dean of international programs. “It gives them a study abroad experience right here on campus.”
The number of new Chinese students still represents a fraction of overall enrollment: just 2 percent of the OSU freshman class, for example.
They must meet the same entrance requirements as anyone else, including passing an English-language test.
Siyi Chen, a freshman from Changsha in China’s central Hunan province planning to study finance, was especially impressed by OSU’s array of 32 libraries.
But like Xiaoli, she has no interest in staying on after graduation.
“I probably will go back to China to work there and find more opportunity there,” she said. “I didn’t know any reason for me to stay here than staying with my family. That’s more important.”
