International students bring to Florida universities a global view — and pay full-freight tuition prices.

Florida universities will be looking more to foreign students such as Yue Wang, who graduated from FIU in May, to make up for cuts in state support. [Photo: Donna Victor]

In 2009, as Yue Wang, a young college graduate in the Chinese coastal city of Tianjin, contemplated where she would like to study abroad for her master's, her attention turned to a billboard in the city advertising Florida International University.

Other signs began to point to Florida. Her uncle knew a student in FIU's hospitality program who liked it. A 2007 film adaptation of "Miami Vice," featuring Chinese actress Gong Li, left a favorable impression of Miami. Wang went to her college teacher. "I still remember his words. 'If you could get the admission letter from the university, it will change your life.' "

Wang, 25, graduated in May from FIU with a master's in Asian studies. She says living in the United States indeed changed her life.

By The Numbers

29,708 Number of foreigners studying at Florida colleges and universities in 2009-10

$827 million Amount spent in tuition, fees, room and board by foreigners at Florida's public and private universities

6th Florida's rank nationally in number of foreign students, with India, China, Venezuela, South Korea and Colombia sending the most

Source: Institute of International Education and the Association of International Educators

Florida universities are looking for foreign students to change theirs. All the universities are quick to say foreign students bring a global viewpoint that enhances the education of Florida students. Foreign students also tend to be the best of their country's lot — hardworking, smart, excelling in math, engineering and the sciences, a good resource for Florida in the global talent wars.

But the schools also aren't shy about pursuing the incremental dollars that foreign students bring. Revenue from out-of-staters has fallen by some $16 million since 2007-08, but Florida's universities are aiming to reverse that trend. By 2015, FIU wants to increase its share of out-of-state and international students to 12%. A back-of-the-envelope calculation, taking into account FIU's plans for significant overall enrollment growth, puts the incremental revenue around $24 million a year. That buys a lot of professors.

Florida has a 10% systemwide cap on non-Florida students. In recent years, the number of non-Florida students has been dropping. Currently about 8.7% of public university students are from outside Florida. The difference between 8.7% and 10% works out to $43 million in missed incremental revenue, assuming non-Floridians pay $10,000 more per year than in-state students.

Revenue From Out-Of-State Students
(Including both U.S. and international students at Florida's public universities)
2006-07	$190.3 million
2007-08	192.2 million
2008-09	188.3 million
2009-10	188.5 million
2010-11	176.5 million
Source: Florida Board of Governors

At the University of South Florida, for instance, only 6% of the student body is from outside Florida. It wants more foreign students. But it lacks the international reputation and recruiting network of older universities and would prefer not to spend the time and resources to build those in-house. So last year the school spent $250,000 from its foundation to partner with INTO University Partnerships, a U.K.-based outfit that recruits talented international students whose English proficiency isn't sufficient for regular admission.

"USF, as we speak, is getting promoted 24/7 in 75 countries all around the world," says David Stremba, INTO's managing director for North America. INTO spends $12 million on marketing and for in-country recruiters for 10 universities in the U.K. and USF and Oregon State University.

In fall 2010, 460 students enrolled in INTO USF, beating projections by 39%. In a semester-long, INTO USF program run by USF, students improve their English while taking "pathway" academic classes and receive mentoring in studies and the transition to life in the States. (International students, for example, have to learn that it's fine here to raise a hand to interrupt a professor in mid-lecture to get a point clarified.)

Some 93% of the students in the 2010 class were eligible to progress to the university, paying full freight. The program has created more than 50 jobs. More than 700 more students begin the program in August. "It's been immensely successful," says USF provost Ralph Wilcox. "The early returns have far exceeded our most ambitious projections. We expect it will yield some pretty significant revenues."

After USF recovers the cost of educating the students in the program, it splits the surplus with INTO and, of course, gets all the revenue from students who matriculate into the university.

The program widens the pool of available international students, for which "competition is incredibly fierce," Stremba says. And satisfied students build word-of-mouth marketing in their home countries. "It's worth it to spend that money at the University of South Florida," says Hao Wang, a 24-year-old from Nanning, China, who successfully completed the INTO program and now is pursuing a master's in finance. He says he is gaining the American perspective and exposure to American culture he thinks will benefit his career.

Pandu Swaraga, 25, of Indonesia, says his employer, PT Petrokimia Gresik, fulfilled his lifelong wish of seeing American when it sent him to the program. "It really is a dream come true." He's now pursuing a master's in finance.

Yue Wang, meanwhile, is getting another kind of education: Trying to find a job for the year her visa allows her to work in the United States.

Source: Florida Trend

International students enjoy tour of farm

Samee Rashid and Hozan Noori, two UW-Madison students who arrived in Madison three weeks ago from Kurdistan, jumped up on a tractor Sunday during an event for international students on a family farm here.

The men are taking classes in English as a second language and hope to pursue master’s degrees in law. They are from Erbil, the fourth largest Iraqi city, and the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Rashid, 28, wanted to make sure Americans know that farms in Kurdistan are more beautiful than in Wisconsin.

“It’s one of the best areas for wheat,” he said.

Rashid and Noori, 26, were among about 140 international students to visit the farm of Steve and Martha Querin-Schultz, who for the third year in a row opened their third-generation farm to the students. Five international students from Madison Area Technical College also took part in the event.

Martha Querin-Schultz is office manager for the UW-Madison’s International Student Services, and her husband, Steve, who regularly attends university events with her, thought it would be a good idea to get the students out to their farm.

“I have always felt that the international students at UW feel isolated in the sense that they are in an urban area and never really get outside the city,” Martha Querin-Schultz said. “This was just an opportunity to get students off the Isthmus, off campus, and out into the country.”

Students and their families took horse-drawn wagon rides, learned to drive a tractor, toured the family’s home and surrounding land, played outdoor games, ate lunch courtesy of the Cottage Grove Historical Society and listened to a bluegrass group.

The event took nearly 50 volunteers to put on.

The 250-acre farm used to be a dairy and cattle farm. Now they raise corn and soybeans.

Farhana Raja, 29, from Malaysia, who is studying agriculture, said she was particularly interested in seeing a working Wisconsin farm.

Raja said farming is similar in her country, but that the crops are different.

“In Malaysia there is less soybeans,” she said. “We use a lot of palm oil instead of vegetable oil.”

Steve Querin-Schultz said the yearly farm visits give the students a rural experience.

“Most of these kids are from the city and they live in Madison so they don’t get a chance to see the rural lifestyle,” he said.

Noori said he’s already homesick and misses everything about his country, but was glad he came out to the farm.

“I think I’ll get used to living here,” he said. “Wisconsin is beautiful and very friendly.”

Source: Madison News

Harvard admits more women but sticks on international

The figures just released by Harvard Business School for the class that will enter the MBA programme in 2011, show that it has increased the number of women on its programme this year from 36 per cent to 39 per cent, but continues to admit just 34 per cent of the class from outside the US.

With 918 MBA students in the class of 2013, there will be an additional 35 women admitted at Harvard this year. An increase in the class size from 903 last year, means there will be an additional five overseas students, assuming that all accepted students begin the programme.

Of the international students, 10 per cent are from Europe and 13 per cent from Asia and the South Pacific. Just 4 per cent - 37 students - are from Central and South America.

More striking, however, are the data for where students work now. In particular, just 21 per cent of students work in consulting and 12 per cent in financial services - the two industries most associated with business school. Some eight per cent of students work in not-for-profit organisations.

Source: The Financial Times