Despite changing political climate; international students feel included on-campus
Faith Riggs and Christiana Ford
As international student enrollment steadily declines across the country, current international students continue to feel apart of the Kent State family.
Simge Engelkiran, a native of Cyprus and graduate student in the College of Education and Human Services, previously studied at institutions in The United Kingdom and Nebraska.
Despite having the diverse educational background, she said Kent is her greatest experience.
“I came here last year and everything was very international student-oriented,” Engelkiran said. “From the Office of Global Education to EHHS, I always get the support that I wanted and I needed.”
Zhijian Shao, a senior digital media production major, moved from China three years ago and found himself adjusting very quickly.
“It’s better for me. When I first come here three years ago my English ability very very poor,” Shao said. “You know, if you are studying and living in another language environment, your language ability will improve very rapidly.”
He says the language barrier was the hardest part of studying in a different country.
“To be honest, I was very afraid to communicate with Americans and I tried to do more practice, do more listening and speaking,” Shao said.
Although the international population is small in numbers, The Office of Global Education aims to make international students feel included in the community.
Sarah Malcolm, the Office of Global Education international partnerships manager said she hopes the current international enrollment numbers will stabilize.
“I think we’re seeing new trend in enrollment that we need to consider,” Malcolm said. “Many universities saw huge decreases in enrollment since 2008. however, since 2008, a lot of the countries where we receive students have done new investments in their higher education.”
Malcolm said countries such as China have invested in newer and larger higher educations infrastructures that have resulted in students choosing to study in their home countries.
In previous years, students such as Shao found it more difficult to study in China.
“We don’t need to update our Visa’s,” Shao said. “The student visas are valued for five years. After you graduate, if this period exceeds five years, you need to update your Visa. But for me, I think it’s okay.”
Unlike Shao, newer students are finding it more and more difficult to continue studying in the U.S. as policies change.
Recently, the State Department changed the duration of student visas for Chinese citizens to one year, with a chance of renewal.
“That’s reducing the number of Chinese overall and we’re feeling that in our college,” said Linda Robertson, director of international and intercultural education for EHHS.
Another important factor to the decline is the change of higher education funding in Saudi Arabia.
“That was a very generous scholarship with the idea of I believe sending over 200,000 students a year abroad,” Malcolm said.
In recent years, this funding has dramatically decreased. This has resulted in a large decline of students overall.
Malcolm believes that the decline is directly linked to these factors and unrelated to the current political climate.
As a response to recent trends, many departments are looking for new ways of recruitment.
Robertson said NAFSA, the Association of International Educators, advises universities to start looking toward marketing and recruiting in African countries.
“We kind of looked at the data and said what kind of targeting program do we need to improve?” said Robertson. “And what kind of marketing materials do we have that we can give to international recruiters to help us do that?”
The Office of Global Education is also brainstorming additional ways to improve international student enrollment globally.
The office recently launched the American Academy in Brazil in Spring 2018. This partnership will allow Brazilian students to experience Kent State education in their country for two years before deciding to transfer to the Kent campus.
“One of the things we need to do is to bring the Kent State experience and education to students outside of Ohio,” Malcolm said. “There is a bit of a family here. There is sense of home that you get on this campus that not all campuses have. I believe as an international student, many students find that.”
With student enrollment down at Kent State, the drop in international students can be seen as a direct link. Hear what students and university staff have to say in my upcoming report. pic.twitter.com/PuUsKiVua4
— Christiana Ford (@christianaford_) September 9, 2018
Christiana: Video, Tweeting
Faith: Copy and Infogram