tinyurl.com/3hwmn -> www.nytimes.com/2004/12/21/national/21global.html?hp&ex=1103691600&en=255cb6ba2a51c294&ei=5094&partner=homepage
US Slips in Attracting the World's Best Students By SAM DILLON Published: December 21, 2004 A merican universities, which for half a century have attracted the world 's best and brightest students with little effort, are suddenly facing i ntense competition as higher education undergoes rapid globalization. The European Union, moving methodically to compete with American universi ties, is streamlining the continent's higher education system and offeri ng American-style degree programs taught in English. Britain, Australia and New Zealand are aggressively recruiting foreign students, as are Asi an centers like Taiwan and Hong Kong. And China, which has declared that transforming 100 universities into world-class research institutions is a national priority, is persuading top Chinese scholars to return home from American universities.
"What we're starting to see in terms of international students now having options outside the US for high-quality education is just the tip of the iceberg," said David G Payne, an executive director of the Educatio nal Testing Service, which administers several tests taken by foreign st udents to gain admission to American universities. "Other countries are just starting to expand their capacity for offering graduate education. In the future, foreign students will have far greater opportunities." Foreign students contribute $13 billion to the American economy annually. But this year brought clear signs that the United States' overwhelming dominance of international higher education may be ending. In July, Mr Payne briefed the National Academy of Sciences on a sharp plunge in the number of students from India and China who had taken the most recent ad ministration of the Graduate Record Exam, a requirement for applying to most graduate schools; Foreign applications to American graduate schools declined 28 percent thi s year. Actual foreign graduate student enrollments dropped 6 percent. E nrollments of all foreign students, in undergraduate, graduate and postd octoral programs, fell for the first time in three decades in an annual census released this fall. Meanwhile, university enrollments have been s urging in England, Germany and other countries. Some of the American decline, experts agree, is due to post-Sept. American educators and even some foreign ones say the visa difficulties are helping foreign schools incr ease their share of the market. "International education is big business for all of the Anglophone countr ies, and the US traditionally has dominated the market without having to try very hard," said Tim O'Brien, international development director at Nottingham Trent University in England. American educators have been concerned since the fall of 2002, when large numbers of foreign students experienced delays in visa processing. But few noticed the rapid emergence of higher education as a global industry until quite recently. "Many US campuses have not yet geared up for the competition," said Peg gy Blumenthal, a vice president at the Institute for International Educa tion. Still, Ms Blumenthal said, it remains unclear whether the sudden decline in foreign enrollments is a one-time drop or the beginning of a long sl ide. Steven B Sample, president of the University of Southern California - wh ich last year had 6,647 foreign students, the most of any American unive rsity - said colleagues who lead other universities had expressed anxiet y at professional meetings.
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