Following a three-year trend of increases partly because of recruiting efforts aimed at Chinese undergraduates, Ohio University's international enrollment reached a record high this year.
Preliminary fall 2008 international enrollment is 1,451 ' up from a final count of 1,256 last year, according to the Office of Institutional Research, which won't have final numbers and a precise breakdown between graduates and undergraduates for several weeks.
Of the total international students enrolled this fall, 478 are Chinese, accounting for 33 percent of total international enrollment.
OU began its organized international recruiting efforts in the fall of 2004, allotting about $100,000 annually. From fall 2005 to 2007, international enrollment increased 15 percent.
Before recruiting efforts began, like most schools OU's international enrollment consisted mostly of graduate students, but OU is closing that gap, said Josep Rota, associate provost for International Affairs.
In Fall Quarter 2005, 148 undergraduate students accounted for 13.5 percent of total international enrollment. By 2007, 251 undergraduates comprised 20 percent of the international student body.
Recruiting efforts have led to a more balanced distribution of graduate and undergraduates in Chinese international enrollment
and this has been part of our strategic plan Rota said. We want more undergraduate students because only they can have a direct impact on the majority undergraduate student population.
OU is under contract with seven overseas recruiters, which receive a commission of about $1,000 per undergraduate as well as a fee from students they help find a college, an increasingly common practice at U.S. schools that some have called ethically questionable.
Rota, however, has defended recruiting as two distinct services ' one to the university and the other to the students ' that justifies two fees, and he has credited these efforts with helping OU meet its international enrollment goals.- we proposed doubling the number of international students in the next 10 years
he said. Clearly
we are far ahead of our initial and our most optimistic expectations
he added, pointing to the growth in recent years.
Nationally, 14.4 percent of all international students in the U.S. come from India, a major source of graduate students in OU's international enrollment, and 11.6 percent come from China, Rota said.
Although OU recognizes that the rate of growth has to taper off at some point, the university will continue to build relationships with recruiters in other countries.
More and more international students would fulfill our campus lives
he said. They help us to establish our campus as a multicultural society.
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