The Decline in International Enrollment is Hurting Domestic
Students
U.S. higher education was dealt a serious blow this fall.
The expansion of international education that has been a critical financial
stimulus for American colleges and universities experienced an alarming
setback. International education in the forms of U.S. students studying abroad
and U.S. institutions enrolling students from other countries has been an area
of important growth on campuses across the nation for the past decade.
Study abroad has been consistently confirmed as one of the
most transformational educational experiences available to a college student. At
Susquehanna University, we are so committed to this developmental advantage
that we require all our students to have a study-away experience that engages
them in a cultural different from their own. To a person, our students declare
that this is one of the most empowering and meaningful components of their
undergraduate education.
Students who come to the U.S. from other countries are
benefiting from the same type of transformative learning experience while they
are on our campuses. They are also providing invaluable benefits to domestic
students as they enrich our ability to provide sustained intercultural dialogs
and important enhancements of campus diversity.
An equally important byproduct in educating foreign nationals
is the opportunity to expose them to the best of our culture. They learn the
fundamental beauty of a free and democratic society and the ways in which our
republic was born out of the founding fathers’ own education in the liberal
arts. Our international alumni become our most compelling statesmen as they
carry the world of ideas and ways of thinking they encounter at our
institutions back to their home countries, and over time, those around them
become ancillary beneficiaries of their experience.
Recently, IIE released their annual Open
Doors Report. This past year, the number of new international students
enrolling in U.S. colleges and universities dropped by 7%. This has been fueled
by a variety issues including increased competition from other nations like
Canada and Australia. There are also growing perceptions abroad that international
students are less welcome on our campuses and in our communities. These
perceptions have been fueled by rhetoric coming out of Washington, which has
been underscored through actions like the recent travel bans.
International students accounted for $39 billion in net
revenue last year. Those funds helped U.S. colleges and universities provide
educational services to all our students, and that revenue has a multifold
economic impact in our communities. Those benefits alone should encourage our
governmental leaders to become champions in recruiting talented international
students to our campuses.
The greater benefit however is the educational gifts
these students provide to our domestic students and our faculty and staff
colleagues. They are an asset of incalculable value in internationalizing our
campuses. As we participate in an ever more interdependent global economy and
society, we must provide our students the opportunity to learn from each other
how to become effective and informed world citizens.
We owe this to all our
students.