Ball State University lagged in national growth rates for international students for the 2007-08 academic year, but the university hopes to be able to recruit more students with the opening of its China Center in Shanghai.
According to the Institute of International Education, which released its annual Open Door report on Monday, the number of international students at U.S. universities reached a record high during the 2007-08 academic year. The report attributed the increase to China's growing economy.
U.S. campuses experienced a 7 percent increase during the 2007-08 academic year. There were a reported 623,805 international students on U.S. campuses, a 3 percent increase from the 2006-07 academic year. The total number of international students in the U.S. beat the previous record of 586,323 reported for the 2002-03 academic year.
At Ball State there are 451 international students - about 2.25 percent of total enrollment - from 46 countries. That number is less than one percent more than last year's Ball State international student enrollment of 422.
Debra Goens, interim director for the Rinker Center's International Student Services, said China supplies 131 students - the largest demographic of international students at Ball State. South Korea follows with 59 students and India stands at third with 58.
Ball State set a five-year goal to increase the number of international students to 5 percent - or 1,000 students - of the total enrollment by 2011. Two years from the goal's deadline, the university is less than halfway there.
Kenneth Holland, dean of the Rinker Center for International Programs, said the soon-to-open China Center will be the first of its kind and will help boost the number of international students from China, which is one of the major suppliers of international students to the U.S. and Ball State.
Holland said Ball State was also using new strategies to attract more students from countries mentioned and others such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
"The new strategy involves hiring natives of those countries to work to recruit students for Ball State," Holland said. "Before Ball State used to send its own staff to do the job."
In addition to opening a center in China, Ball State was planning on hiring an agent in South Korea to work for Ball State international admissions in that country.
Holland said the reason they were focusing on China, India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Turkey was because of economic growth and a lack of higher education institutions in those countries.
Focusing on top student-supplying countries and fields of study, Holland said Ball State had an excellent business and management school, attracts a lot of the university's international students.
International Students in U.S.Total - 623,8051. India - 83,8332. China - 67,7233. South Korea - 62,392
International Students at Ball StateTotal - 4511. China - 1312. South Korea - 593. India - 58
Top Hosts for International Students:
- Top University - University of Southern California
- Top City - New York
- Top State - California
- Top Field of Study - Business and Management
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