Top U.S. Educator Lauds Foreign Students
as Valuable to the U.S.

The educational and cultural impact of millions of foreign students who studied in the United States over the past 50 years is a rich asset that continues to strengthen a nation of immigrants now ironically under attack by violent extremists who say U.S. citizens lack international understanding, says American Council on Education (ACE) President David Ward. In a November 16 interview with the Washington File, Ward said foreign students have acted "as a force for mutual understanding" and continue to do so. This at a time when some self-proclaimed Islamic fundamentalists have charged U.S. citizens with cultural and religious insensitivity, a claim negated by the fact that foreign students from many lands have chosen over the years to study and live in the United States, and the numbers are growing.

According to the annual report on international education called Open Doors, published by the Institute of International Education (IIE) with support from the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), the numbers of foreign students attending colleges and universities in the United States increased by 6.4% in the academic year 2000/2001 to a record total of 547,867. The report's figures also show that approximately 13% of the total number of foreign students attending U.S. universities and colleges come from predominantly Muslim countries.

ACE's David Ward said foreign students have created "a vast diaspora of friends of the United State of America," who can go far in correcting the false perceptions about U.S. political and social life spread by anti-American extremists. He mentioned that prominent leaders such as Mexican President Vicente Fox and Jordanian King Abdallah II were products of higher education in the U.S.

At the same time, he pointed out, "the broad cultural contact they [foreign students] bring provides an alternative context to U.S. students. In a classroom, what might be an assumption in North America is not the same assumption in Latin America.

"While it is not the same as studying overseas, most American students would say that the cultural diversity foreign students bring to the classroom is a definite plus to their overall educational experience," he added.

Ward was himself a foreign student from the United Kingdom who in the 1960s studied at the University of Wisconsin (UW) under a Fulbright scholarship, a student exchange program administered by the U.S. government. Ward later returned to the U.S., became citizen, and as a professor of geography worked his way to the top, eventually becoming chancellor of UW. He was named to head ACE last September.

According to its Internet web site, ACE was founded in 1918 and now represents the interests of more than 1,800 U.S. universities and colleges. As the largest non-governmental organization (NGO) for higher education in the U.S., it is "dedicated to the belief that equal educational opportunity and a strong higher education system are essential cornerstones of a democratic society."

Ward, who served as associate dean of the graduate school at UW from 1980 to 1987 explained that starting in the early 1950s U.S. universities became more interested in foreign students for a very practical reason. "In certain respects, particularly at the graduate level, the access to the very best talent became globalized, and so to the degree that American universities wanted to remain the best, the pool that they wanted to draw from became international."

He said examples like "the infusions of Europeans in physics and of East Asians into information science have accelerated the development of new knowledge and kept the United States on the leading edge of things because we have hybridized our native talent with the best of overseas."

The IIE/ECA Open Doors report, released November 13, shows that Asia, as a region, led the world in sending university students to the U.S. in 2000/2001 with a total of 302,058. China led the region and world with 59,939, followed by India, 54,664; Japan, 46,497; Korea, 45,685; Taiwan, 28,566; Canada, 25,279; Indonesia, 11,625; Thailand, 11,187; Turkey, 10,983; and Mexico, 10,670.

Among the regions, Europe came in second with a total of 80,584 foreign students. The country providing the most students from Eastern Europe was Russia at 6,858, which was a decline from the previous year's total of 7,025. In Western Europe, Germany led with 10,128 and the United Kingdom followed at 8,139. Both countries experienced small increases over the previous year.

The Middle East provided 36,858 foreign students, with Saudi Arabia coming in second after Turkey with 5,273. Israel, with 3,402, and Kuwait, with 3,045, were next in line in the region, which experienced a 5.6% increase in enrollment over the previous year.

The African region, including the Maghreb, furnished 34,217 foreign students. Kenya led with 6,229 students and Nigeria came in second with 3,820. The region's numbers represented an increased enrollment of 13% over the previous year; the greatest increase of any region.

When the report was released, Assistant Secretary of State for ECA Patricia Harris said programs that bring foreign students to the United States "are founded on the belief that a more profound knowledge of other societies and cultures, and active cooperation in the search for solutions to common problems, help to build stronger relationships between countries, governments, and peoples."

She added that the U.S. government, "therefore, is pleased that the number of foreign students choosing to further their education in the U.S. again increased. In the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States, and the ongoing challenges facing our nation, we reaffirm our commitment to the ideals of international exchange as a force for understanding."

Asked if he believed there have been widespread abuses under the special visa program that permits students to stay and study in the United States, Ward said: "Absolutely not. On the other hand, there is certainly room for reform in the process. It has not been run with the kind of managerial effectiveness that it deserves." The U.S. agency responsible for tracking foreign students, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), he said, "has been overwhelmed by both legal and illegal immigrants, and the visa system in general, not just the student visa program, has had administrative problems."

Ward said the terrorist attacks of September 11, which were conducted by a number of young men who were in the United States under visitor's visas, "suggest that the visa system needs tightening up. But to focus just on foreign students" would be wrong. "I do believe we [higher education] were sloppy at keeping track of students and that Congress was legitimate in criticizing us," Ward said. "In the end we were no longer giving data about foreign students to the INS and they frequently were not asking. "To some degree we all (universities, INS, and the State Department) have to have a minimal accountability for students to gauge whether they are attending classes and when they leave school, but I see this primarily as a managerial challenge."

The challenge, from a security standpoint, is stopping terrorists, whether disguised as students or visitors, before they come to the United States, Ward concluded.

Washington, D.C.
November 16, 2001