The U.S. has long been the international campus for the world’s students.
From Baku to Bujumbura to Baghdad, international students have seen U.S. college degrees as a ticket to better pay and an escape from poverty or repression.
But after the 2001 terrorist attacks made security the No. 1 issue in the U.S., the federal government set up barriers that have made it tougher for foreign students to go to school here.
Visa rule changes have squeezed enrollment nationwide while universities in Canada, the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries have seen foreign student enrollment skyrocket.
The impact of this trend is more uneven at Orange County colleges, though none have escaped completely from enrollment changes.
The good news for colleges: the State and Homeland Security departments have been working to improve access for foreign students and are making some progress, said Allan Goodman, president of the Institute of International Education in Washington, D.C.
“I think that they realized how important keeping our doors open while maintaining secure borders is to America,” Goodman said.
The problems arose after visa rule tightening went into effect in 2003. Foreign students faced a lengthier and sometimes more confusing visa application process. Many couldn’t get their paperwork completed in time for the start of classes.
The nation’s colleges eked out a 0.6% increase in international enrollment in the school year beginning in 2003.
In fall 2004, the number of students from other countries fell by 2.4% to 572,509. It was the first decline since 1971, according to an annual report on enrollment that’s published by the Institute of International Education.
The results aren’t in for this school year, but Goodman said he doesn’t expect to see a big swing in enrollment,up or down.
The issue is being closely watched in California, which has the largest number of foreign college students in the U.S.
Chapman University in Orange has seen the biggest hit locally from the tougher visa process.
The private university had 179 foreign students for the 2001 school year. After maintaining its international student enrollment level in 2002, Chapman has seen its number fall steadily to 135 foreign students, said Susan Sams, coordinator of international student services.
The biggest decline has been from the Middle East, Sams said.
Chapman President James Doti has called for a task force to look at its recruitment strategies and scholarship incentives to increase foreign enrollment, Sams said.
A decline in international students is especially tough on smaller universities. Unlike U.S. residents, international students don’t get scholarships or other funding from the colleges. They pay full price, which is particularly lucrative for the colleges.
International students also bring a special element to the campus.
“I think that now that we’re in such a global economy that it’s important for American students to interact with international students,” said Anna Wimberly, director of the International Center at the University of California, Irvine.
OC’s biggest universities,UC Irvine and California State University, Fullerton,haven’t seen big foreign enrollment declines.
Cal State Fullerton saw its international enrollment climb about 5% to 1,523 in the new academic year compared to last year. However, as a percentage of overall enrollment, foreign students dipped to 4.3% from 4.5%. It stood at 4.5% in 2001.
Cal State Fullerton’s recruiting during the past few years has focused on getting more community college transfers to boost overall enrollment. That’s helped the university enroll many foreign students, since they already had worked through the visa process.
But now that the tougher rules have been on the books for a couple of years, it’s going to be harder to find foreign students at two-year colleges, said Bob Ericksen, Cal State Fullerton’s Director of the International Education & Exchange Office.
“The university is taking a very serious look at strategies,” Ericksen said.
Potential options could include visiting more college fairs attended by foreign students and reshaping some academic programs to help foreigners who have poor English skills get in.
At UCI, foreign enrollment has been in flux.
The percentage of UCI students from foreign countries was 6.7% for the 2001 school year and climbed to 7.3% in 2002.
But in the first year of the tougher visa rules, UCI saw its international student mix shrink to 5.3% of overall enrollment before rebounding last year to nearly 7%, or 1,733 students.
The dip in foreign enrollment may have stemmed from the downturn in spending during the state budget crunch two years ago, said Marguerite Bonous-Hammarth, director of admissions and school relations at UCI.
Like Cal State Fullerton, UCI has attracted international students from heavy community college recruiting, Bonous-Hammarth said.
OC universities historically have had an advantage in attracting foreign students for a simple reason: They’re in California.
The state is known as a welcoming place for foreign students via admissions programs and a generally diverse culture.
Some foreigners who got a degree in California will want their children to do the same, no matter how difficult the visa process, Goodman said.
California also is relatively close to Asia, which still sends more kids to U.S. colleges than any other region in the world. Nearly three in five students coming to the U.S. are Asian.
UCI, Cal State Fullerton and Chapman all rank countries like Taiwan, China, Japan and the Philippines as their biggest suppliers of foreign students.
Still, California hasn’t bucked the national trend. It lost 4% of its foreign students last year.
Some of the biggest national declines were posted by Middle Eastern countries, which saw an overall 9% drop in U.S. college enrollment last year, according to the Institute of International Education. One of the bigger losers: the United Arab Emirates, down 30% to 1,853 students.
Other countries sending fewer students were China, down 20%, Japan, off 14% and India, down 9%.
Australia and Canada have taken on some of the students that would have come to the U.S.
The Australian government estimates international enrollment in the 2005 school year has risen about 8.5% at its colleges compared to last year. Many of those gains came from China and India.
“It used to be a (foreign) student would think of only one country,the U.S.,” Ericksen said.
But Goodman said these gains could be short-lived.
The U.S. still has the most universities in the world with 4,000. England has 260 while Australia has 35.
“It’s just not possible to replace America’s capacity,” Goodman said.
Getting a visa is more difficult to get in other countries since 2001, though the perception remains that it’s more difficult in the U.S., he said.
The U.S. has tried to streamline the system, hiring around 1,000 consulate workers, shortening deadlines for getting student visas approved and other measures.
Also, students are planning better. They now start the visa application process about a year ahead of the admission date instead of the more traditional nine months or so.
“Our systems took a while to shake out,” Goodman said.
Yet some worry the mistakes of the past will be a drag on recruiting efforts.
“What’s lingering is the perception that difficulties persist,” said Ursula Oaks, a spokeswoman with NAFSA: Association of International Educators in Washington, D.C.
She said progress has been made in speeding up visa applications. However, when students arrive, they find extra hassles in living here, Oaks said.
Rules making it tough to get a Social Security number remain for foreign students. That makes it harder to rent an apartment or get a credit check.
