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Recruiting international students becoming a priority

International students enrich UB and the community educationally, economically and culturally

Photo: Douglas Levere

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• “We constantly try to provide a good experience for these students because they give so much to us in return.”

  Stephen Dunnett

  Vice Provost for International Education

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By Patricia Donovan

Published: August 29, 2008

More than 15 percent of UB students come from outside the United States—4,300 plus last year and about the same number has arrived for the new academic year. It’s a population UB is working hard to increase.

“In a significant sense, international students play a large role in creating UB’s campus culture,” says Stephen Dunnett, vice provost for international education. “They internationalize the university and the community, and enrich us educationally, economically and culturally.”

The 2006-07 economic impact study published by the Association of International Educators in November 2007 reported that UB’s international students alone contributed almost $80 million a year to the Western New York economy, more than students at any public institution of higher education in New York state.

U.S. News and World Report recently ranked UB with Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania as having one of the largest enrollments of international undergraduate students in the U.S.

With the number of 18-year-old U.S. high school graduates in the college enrollment pool predicted to begin a decline in 2010, Dunnett says recruitment of international students is becoming a priority at many U.S. colleges and universities.

“I want to be clear that we compete mightily for all of our students, domestic and foreign, in-state and out-of-state,” Dunnett says, “and we are deeply dedicated to the education of every one of them.

“But we need to recognize that our out-of-state student population, which increasingly comes from foreign nations,” he says, “is academically well-prepared, very canny about the quality of the education they receive for the price and sought after by thousands of institutions in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

“They know they have plenty of other options,” he says, “so to attract them and keep them, we offer the best service and the most enhanced academic experience possible.”

Dunnett says UB was among the first U.S. universities to recruit and enroll large numbers of foreign students and to provide the kinds of services that recognized their special language needs. Decades of experience and high-quality resources offer an advantage, he says.

“We have an excellent reputation overseas and have many distinguished alumni,” he says, noting that UB’s outstanding program in English-as-a-second language education has been a great resource for international students for 37 years. The Office of International Student and Scholar Services offers a variety of programs, including comprehensive orientation to living and studying in America, cross-cultural counseling, academic advisement and such student services as assistance for immigration and visa issues, international student clubs, news updates and social activities.