Universities look beyond borders

After the attacks of Sept. 11 led to a drop in international student enrollment in U.S. colleges, the numbers are on the rise again, with Colorado schools in the mix and starting to market themselves

By Myung Oak Kim, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published October 6, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Photo by Javier Manzano / The Rocky

From left, 19-year-old Sijie Wang of China, 17-year-old Lin "Eileen" Cong of China and 25 year-old Adeeb Noor of Saudi Arabia listen to questions from a Rocky Mountain News reporter after their Academic Preparation class at the University of Denver.

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Lin "Eileen" Cong was born and raised in a region of northern China called Inner Mongolia but learned to speak decent English by the time she graduated from an international high school in Beijing last spring.

The 17-year-old and nearly all her 100 classmates applied to colleges in the U.S., England, Canada and Australia. About 70 percent were accepted by U.S. schools, she said.

Today, Cong and her best friend are taking classes at the University of Denver's English Language Center. Both plan to transfer to the undergraduate section of DU after they finish brushing up on their English.

They are part of a growing wave of foreign students coming to Colorado universities in recent years.

The flow of foreign students into the U.S. grew rapidly until just after Sept. 11, peaking at 586,000. Stricter rules put in place by the U.S. government as a result of the terrorist attacks caused those numbers to drop by more than 20,000 through 2005, according to a national report released in November 2007 by the Institute of International Education.

Then, some restrictions eased, and the government is now marketing its colleges in other countries to encourage more students to apply. In the 2006-07 school year, the most recent year for which nationwide statistics are available, the enrollment hit nearly 583,000.

In Colorado, the number of foreign students reached 6,692 in the 2001-02 year, but fell 22.5 percent to 5,183 by 2005-06. The number increased a bit to 5,315 for the 2006-07 year, and university officials expect the student numbers to begin showing more growth.

The application process to study in the U.S. for foreign students was "just awful" around 2004, said Larry Bell, director of international education at the University of Colorado.

The government "made visas more difficult to get. They made the interview process more rigorous. In some embassies, it, in fact, was an unfriendly process for some period of time," Bell said. He said students waited as long as six months to get visas.

Then, the State Department altered its approach, encouraging foreign students to apply to U.S. colleges, Bell said. He said it was part of a policy known as "secure borders, open doors."

The clearance process is still rigorous, "but now, they have their arms wide open, saying 'Come on in,' " Bell said.

Tracking requirements also remain strict. College administrators must notify the government each semester about where foreign students live. They also must report any changes in address or in academic major and confirm class enrollment each year.

Most of the 5,000-plus foreign students attending colleges in Colorado come from east Asia and the Middle East and major in business or engineering.

Some local schools, such as Colorado State University, actively market themselves overseas.

CSU officials have been traveling to South Korea, China, Vietnam and India during the past few years to recruit, said Lisa Pappas, assistant director for international student and scholar services.

At DU, the English Language Center has seen a sharp increase in enrollment - from 90 students last semester to 140 now. For the first time in years, the school has had to turn students away for more than a month, Director Nancy Storer said.

She attributes the increase in part to a change in policy that allows students who first attend the English school to then transfer to other departments.

Like other Colorado universities, DU is enrolling more undergraduate students from overseas - especially undergraduates from China.

That trend was clear in a class last week at the English center.

Four of the 12 students in this upper-intermediate class were from China. Two came from Libya. The rest came from Saudi Arabia, Brazil, South Korea and Vietnam.

Cong is the youngest.

The oldest is Khaled Amer, 35, of Libya.

Amer said he got a scholarship from his government to come to the U.S. to earn a doctorate in mechanical engineering. He graduated from college in his home country and earned a master's degree in England in 2002.

He came to Denver in March with his wife and young son. His daughter was born in August.

After earning his degree, Amer plans to return to his country to resume teaching at a university.

He said it took just three days to get a visa.

Adeeb Noor, 25, of Saudi Arabia, also received funding from his government to study here.

He said it took less than a month to get his visa. He plans to obtain a master's degree and doctorate in computer science at CU and then return to Saudi Arabia to teach at a university.

Cong said many Chinese students who can afford it are coming to the U.S. to improve their career chances.

She said her parents are upper middle class and are paying for her studies here. Like many other foreign students, Cong plans to study in the business school.

"The education here is better than China," she said.

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