Ylva
Thanks for the forward. Acess for African student to American Universities will enhance the development of our continent in science, humanity, information technology, medicine etc. Today Asian countries are a sucess story in the fight against poverty because the knowledge economy. University education is an important ingredient for the development of our continent.
Ylva Hernlund <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
This article was forwarded to me by a colleague at the University of Washington, and i thought it might interest some l-ers. Ylva
July 2
Out of Africa (to American Colleges?)
Efforts by higher education and the federal government to attract
international students to the United States are largely focused on Asia and
Europe and should shift to Africa and Latin America, some lawmakers and
witnesses argued before a House of Representatives panel on Friday.
At a hearing on the role of international students and visiting scholars in
American universities, Rep. Bill Delahunt (D.-Mass.), chair of the House
Foreign Relations Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights
and Oversight, stressed his desire to see international student recruiting
aimed increasingly at students from developing countries and continents.
"I think we've got to be prepared to make a major investment," he said.
"Africa, Latin America are exactly where our focus should be from a public
diplomacy effort."
Delahunt wants the United States to dominate the international educational
options for Africans and Latin Americans. He fears that "the future for
Africa and the Africa of tomorrow in terms of the leadership in all sectors,
political, economic, etc., could very well be China rather than the United
States." He later added, "Clearly, I can relate to you that the Europeans
are focused on [recruiting students from] Africa."
Thomas A. Farrell, deputy assistant secretary for academic programs in the
State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, said his
department is "at a tipping point with Congress's ability to help us with
Africa and higher education."
With modest improvements in African health care, primary education and
literacy, brought about in part through help from the Bush administration,
Farrell said, "we're reaching a point in Africa where we can actually say on
the higher education side and the exchange side, it's not just your elite
person.. We are now going to be able to seriously engage a wider and more
diverse group of people" in higher education.
He noted that the State Department has included money for programs to
encourage the postsecondary education of African students in its 2008
federal budget proposal, alluding to plans for the department to more
actively court these students to American colleges and universities.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy
and Public Affairs Karen Hughes have already begun similar programs in
China, India and several other countries that send sizable contingents of
international students to the United States.
Recruiting students from Africa and Latin America was one topic in a
wide-ranging hearing that also included testimony on the difficulty
international students and visiting scholars have in securing visas because
of the security checks put in place after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
Negative perceptions of the United States that became harsher in the
attacks' aftermath have only begun to subside and again make the country an
attractive and welcoming place for students and scholars from abroad.
While the United Kingdom, Australia, France and several other countries have
seen gains of tens of thousands of international students in the last four
years, the United States is only now returning to its pre-2001 level, said
Marlene M. Johnson, executive director and CEO of NAFSA: Association of
International Educators.
Jessica M. Vaughan, senior policy analyst at the Center for Immigration
Studies, said that while international student visa issuances and enrollment
numbers have rebounded, gains have been limited by region. Thirty percent
fewer visas are being issued to African students than were before 2001 and
half as many are being issued to Latin American students, she said. "That
that tells me it does have less to do with the visa process and more to do
with the efforts that the higher education industry has undertaken to
address the foreign competition issue and the cost issues and so on."
Though American colleges and universities have long been perceived as some
of the world's best, other countries are catching up in quality and offering
lower-cost educations to foreign students. The result, Delahunt said, is
that the United States is increasingly at a "comparative disadvantage" in
attracting students, a disadvantage he wants to figure out how to reverse.
One major challenge in attracting international students is the high cost of
tuition at American colleges and universities, public and private. Rep.
Bobby Scott (D.-Va.) said that "the vast, overwhelming majority" of
international students depend on financing from their parents, their home
governments or loans to pay for U.S. higher education.
The original story and user comments can be viewed online at
http://insidehighered.com/news/2007/07/02/intlstudents.
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