International Education Expert Calls Presidential Directive Restricting Graduate Student Studies "Ghastly"

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Stephen Dunnett, vice provost for international education at the University at Buffalo and a national leader in the field of international education, today expressed serious concern over a "hidden" directive from President George Bush that, if implemented, would place stricter controls on student visas and bar "certain international students from pursuing education and training in sensitive areas."

"Although I'm sure the administration has no evil intent here, this directive is ghastly," Dunnett says. "It could cause great damage, not only to the students in question, but to our universities on many fronts.

"It flies in the face of everything that we stand for in this country," he says. "It restricts open access to education, research and knowledge-sharing, despite the fact that we have been very outspoken as a nation against other countries that have instituted such restrictions."

The directive, "Combating Terrorism Through Immigration Policies," was issued in October. It has not yet been implemented and is under review by an interagency working group overseen by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The group has not sought input from colleges and universities.

Fields to be restricted by the directive are "areas of study with direct application to the development and use of weapons of mass destruction," which could include biology, physics, chemistry, computer science and engineering.

Dunnett says the weapons' information the directive seeks to restrict already is available in journals, books, on the Internet and at universities abroad. He also points out that virtually all terrorists identified since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, got into the U.S. on tourist visas and were not students in American universities.

Approximately 30 million tourist visas are issued every year through a system much looser and less restrictive than that governing the slightly more than 500,000 student visas issued every year.

Last month, three major associations representing the interests of U.S. higher education protested this fact to the administration and complained in a joint statement that "We are concerned that the fundamentally open character of our education system may make it impossible (to implement the directive)."

Dunnett says there are several problems with the directive.

"First," he says, "50 to 60 percent of advanced graduate degrees in engineering and the sciences are awarded to international students. American students generally are not inspired to enter these fields on a graduate level, and foreign students typically are far better prepared for studies in science than are American students.

"So if we close graduate education in science and engineering or computer science to international students, who will fill our classrooms?" he asks. "Who will help us do the research in these fields? Where will we get future faculty members?

"If these students are made unwelcome here, many will turn away from us -- and they do have other options for overseas study besides the U.S.," he points out. "In the short run, they'll take tuition money away, along with highly qualified, inexpensive research workers.

"In the long run, however, we face a worse problem -- a large number of scientists out there who won't know the United States, never will have derived any benefit from living and studying here and will not understand our way of living and thinking," Dunnett says. "And that is not a good thing."

The second problem posed, he says, is the possibility of retaliation from other countries in a position to restrict the access of American students studying in their countries or the refusal by affected nations to share their research with the U.S.

"Even worse," says Dunnett, "these nations may refuse to assist us in funding expensive research projects that require -- and now receive -- foreign corporate support."

Third, Dunnett says the directive is unenforceable.

"How can a school track the academic activities of students, who tend to change majors all the time once they're in the university?" he asks.

"How would we prevent them from transferring from a chemistry class to an advanced course in physics, for instance? Will they be kept out of out of specific labs? Who will police their academic activities?"

He says that although this news hasn't drifted down to faculty members yet, he thinks there will be widespread anger and ridicule of the directive once they get wind of it.

He says the U.S. also needs to balance its policies with recognition of the contributions foreign students have made to many scholarly fields and to the country as a whole. He points out that students from abroad tend to develop an appreciation for U.S. culture and institutions that serves the U.S. well when they become leaders in their own countries or in international arenas.

"As noted in The Chronicle of Higher Education," Dunnett says, "UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, a Nobel laureate, and King Abdullah of Jordan are American university graduates and their knowledge and affiliation have been very helpful to us in the present conflict."

He notes, however, that they are from "suspect" countries and under the directive, would have their studies restricted if they were going to school today.

Many other world leaders were educated in U.S. universities as well, including the presidents of Mexico and Taiwan, the former president of the Philippines, former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali, a former Israeli prime minister, the king of Thailand, the late king of Nepal, the prime minister of Greece and a former prime minister of New Zealand.

"If this directive is implemented, it will send a message to students abroad that the U.S. is not a welcoming place for them," a message he says the nation began sending last fall.

"This contradicts the open invitation that we first issued in the early 19th century to foreign nationals who want to partake of American higher education," Dunnett says. It also contradicts the extensive effort by the State Department over the past 50 years to encourage and greatly facilitate access by foreign students to U.S. colleges and universities.

"Openness is the American way," says Dunnett. "What marks our difference is our willingness to trust and share, a trait that amazes foreign students. That trust is seldom violated."

He notes that many foreign scholars come to our colleges and universities with international reputations. Their expertise contributes many millions of dollars to the national and local economies, and enhances the prestige and international reputation of our academic institutions. Of the 65 Nobel Prizes in medicine and physiology awarded to Americans since 1949, 40 percent went to scientists who were foreign-born.

"We need to defend our land from terrorists, of course we do," Dunnett says. "But in doing so, we shouldn't let them win by changing the face of our country."

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