Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company The New
York Times
November 18, 2001, Sunday, Late Edition -
Final
SECTION: Section 1B; Page
7; Column 1; National Desk
LENGTH: 1205 words
HEADLINE: A
NATION CHALLENGED: THE STUDENTS; Eager for Foreign Students,
Universities Persuade Senator to Drop Plan to Limit Visas
BYLINE: By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Nov. 17
BODY: An effort to impose a federal moratorium on student visas in the wake of September's terrorist attacks has
foundered after an intense lobbying campaign by university officials, who feared
the pause would deal a crippling blow to advanced research programs and to the
bottom lines of colleges and universities.
In the days
after the attack, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, proposed a
six-month moratorium on the issuance of such visas as part of the general effort
to tighten the nation's security. University officials who argued against the
visa restrictions invoked the lofty values of international education: spreading
democracy, promoting knowledge and forging ties with future leaders abroad.
But the clash illustrated a more prosaic, pressing side to
their concern: the growing financial and intellectual dependence of universities
on students from overseas, particularly for graduate programs in the sciences,
engineering and math.
A report released this week by
the Institute of International Education found that 547,667 foreign students
attended American colleges and universities in the academic year ending in June
2001, a 6.4 percent jump over the previous year and the biggest single-year
increase in two decades. Nearly 11 percent come from China, followed by India,
Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Canada. While Middle Eastern states, particularly
those on the State Department's list of nations that sponsor terrorism, are not
among the top sources of foreign students, Senator Feinstein raised concerns in
hearings about some 16,000 students from states that sponsor terrorism who have
studied in the United States over the last decade.
An
analysis by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities
shows that although foreign students accounted for 3.4 percent of total
enrollment in colleges and universities in 2000, they paid an estimated 7.9
percent of tuition and fees American universities received that year.
International students and their families pump $11 billion
a year into the American economy for tuition and fees, housing, living expenses
and consumer goods. International education is considered a form of trade, and
shows up as one of the largest service-industry exports, said Victor C. Johnson,
public policy director of the Association of International Educators.
The largest number of foreign students, 74,281, is in
California, where the Institute of International Education estimates they spent
nearly $1.6 billion in the last academic year. New York is second, with 58,286
foreign students spending $1.3 billion.
Ineligible for
the most common forms of financial aid, like Pell grants, foreign undergraduates
tend to pay full freight at a time when 84 percent of Americans attending
private universities receive financial aid of some sort. At state institutions,
foreigners are charged the highest rates of tuition, corresponding to those for
out-of-state residents.
At the University of Nebraska,
foreigners account for 21 percent of graduate students. Merlin P. Lawson, who is
both dean of graduate studies and dean of international affairs, said that a
six-month moratorium on student visas "would have been devastating, initially."
Because future applications also depend on alumni recommendations, the long-term
impact would have been severe as well, he said, echoing the reaction at many
universities.
At the Massachusetts College of Liberal
Arts, Randall Hansis, the dean of academic studies, said foreign students were
"great on work-study."
"Talk about a work ethic," Dean
Hansis said. "It's sometimes embarrassing to see the American students next to
them."
With American students ranking poorly over all
in international science and math competitions, universities said they would
suffer if they could not turn to international students to fill out such
courses.
"We have tremendous difficulty in getting
American citizens to apply for, enroll and be qualified in many of our
engineering and science areas," said Mark Kamlet, provost at Carnegie Mellon
University in Pittsburgh, one of the nation's premier research institutions.
At Carnegie Mellon, 47 percent of the doctoral degrees
issued in 1999 were awarded to students from other nations. At the New Jersey
Institute of Technology in Newark, the figure was 80 percent. At the Stevens
Institute of Technology in Hoboken, foreign students earned 73 percent of the
doctorates. At Rockefeller University in New York, 61 percent of the doctorates
awarded in 1999 went to students from abroad.
From
research universities to small colleges, institutions also court overseas
students to burnish their international credentials. Many parents, aware that
their children will have to function in a global economy, seek out universities
that expose students to other cultures.
"Every
university is looking for students who have to pay the maximum there is to pay,"
said Jurg Gerber, director of the office of international programs at Sam
Houston State University in Huntsville, Tex. But Mr. Gerber said he believed the
primary motivation for recruiting overseas students was not financial. "There's
more of a concern with internationalizing the educational program," he said.
Mr. Johnson agreed. "The first opportunity many students
have to have interaction with foreigners is when they enroll at Montana State,
say, and meet them there," he said.
In organizing the
campaign against the visa moratorium, the American Council on Education, which
represents the presidents of universities and colleges, warned members that any
pause in visas "would wreak havoc on graduate schools, which rely heavily on
international students and scholars to assist with teaching and research."
The letter, signed by a broad range of groups representing
public and private institutions, urged university presidents to press Ms.
Feinstein directly to drop her proposal. David Ward, president of the American
Council on Education, arranged for officials from top universities, including
California State, the University of California, Stanford and Georgetown, to meet
separately with the senator and with her staff.
An aide
said that Ms. Feinstein saw the pause as a way of giving the government time to
get an electronic tracking system for foreign students up and running, and that
she was not completely surprised by the opposition.
"Obviously, international education is a very big business," said the
aide. "Many people who wrote said, 'International education means this much to
our university.' "
In the meetings, academics and their
lobbyists also suggested that singling out foreign students would embarrass
Senator Feinstein and prove of little usefulness over time, since they account
for only 2 percent of all visa holders. They argued that six months would be
insufficient to get the tracking system running, Dr. Ward recalled.
The aide to Ms. Feinstein noted that despite dropping the
moratorium proposal, the senator, who is chairwoman of the Subcommittee on
Technology and Terrorism, had introduced a broader bill to tighten immigration
policies and to force government agencies to share information on suspected
criminals and terrorists overseas.
http://www.nytimes.com
GRAPHIC: Chart:
"KEEPING TRACK: Foreign Students" The percentage of international
students at American colleges and universities has been rising.
Graph showing the increase in international students
at American colleges and universities.
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