This fall we
will have 450 international students studying here at CSUSM representing 40
countries around the world, most notably China, Korea, Japan, Norway, Saudi
Arabia and Vietnam. As education standards are rising globally, there is more
interest and demand for higher education in virtually every country around the
world - http://blog.euromonitor.com/2014/06/the-top-5-trends-in-higher-education-globally.html
Despite this
fact, I am often asked why a public university like ours continues to admit international
students: is this contrary to our
mission of ‘expanding student access to an excellent and affordable education?’
You may find
the answer startling.
According to
the California Colleges for International Education, “ it takes roughly 4
international students to open a section, thereby making it possible for
another 30 more California students to receive college instruction.” The bottom line is that the influx of
international students allows us to better serve domestic students by offering
more programs and additional sections of existing programs, to help mitigate
the issues raised by impacted classes and programs.
Because international
students do not qualify for government aid and most pay their own way, they
bring into the U.S. literally billions of dollars each year to cover tuition,
housing, food and other expenses.
But these are
the dollar and cent issues. The biggest impact I see is in the lives of
our students and faculty who are learning together and exploring issues from a
truly global perspective.
When students
from China, Saudi Arabia and Norway are engaged in a project with students from
the United States, they have an opportunity to think about preconceptions,
biases, and assumptions they may have never considered. I recently watched a
discussion among international students regarding the roles and
responsibilities of public service agencies in working with displaced
populations such as refugees and immigrants. Conversations like these are where
real learning occurs.
What do you
think about the internationalization of our campus? To see what some of our
international students think, view https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BQNLVbeNpA
I look
forward to your comments; please feel free to email me at eldean@csusm.edu
