An increase in recruitment of international students by universities across the world and SIUC’s lack of competitive tuition costs are major sources SIUC plummeting international enrollment, one administrator says.

Students cite the cost of living, the high cost of tuition, and segregation of the students as their top complaints.

Despite different reasoning, both agree stepping up recruitment measures and more word-of-mouth publicity are solutions to SIUC’s diving international enrollment.

John Jackson, vice chancellor for Academic Affairs and provost, said recruitment across the country has leaped above and beyond SIUC’s attempts and expectations.

Locally we may not have recruited as effectively as we should have, Jackson said. We’re trying to step it up in terms of how much attention we’re giving to recruitment.

The areas that we can do almost nothing about is there are more and more countries and more and more universities trying to recruit international students to get higher education in their country Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand have heavily increased their recruitment of international students, especially in Asia.

Jackson said the shaky Asian economy may have forced more students from Asian countries to attend a closer university.

A number of the Asian economies are very shaky right now, he said. All of those countries (listed above) are now very competitive in the Asian international market. They have very good universities some of them famous universities. Sometimes they offer a better price in the sense of lower tuition than we do.

Since the early 1980s, students from Asia and Western Europe have been the most important sources of growth in the international student population according to the 1995-96 copy of Open Doors, a report on international educational exchange.

Rhonda Vinson, executive assistant to the chancellor for International and Economic Development, said universities are fighting among themselves for students.

We’re all feeling the competition, Vinson said. Students have many more opportunities to go to community colleges and more opportunities to go to school at home.

In the early ’80s, when we were ranked sixth, international students had a few to choose from.

The Open Doors study said foreign students represent approximately 3.1 percent of all U.S. higher education enrollments.

Jackson said the increase in competition has dropped SIUC behind the forefront of leading international student recruiters.

Here at home, more American universities are recruiting when they didn’t used to, Jackson said. When we were big in international, we were one of the national list of 20 or 30 that had always done good international recruitment.

We’ve been doing this for 50 years. We were good at it and we are still good at it, but the competition now is 3,000 institutions of higher education.

Jackson said SIUC has new competitors since the glory days of high international enrollment.

In this state the community colleges are recruiting international students. We never had competition from the community colleges in Illinois, he said. They were set up to be friends and neighbors who go to school in the same county. They weren’t set up to recruit internationals and now they’re sending international recruiters across the globe.

Jackson said costs of the institutions play a big role in an international student’s choice when they come to the United States for their higher education.

I think probably the most crucial is the 3-to-1 tuition ratio. Closely related, we basically kept raising tuition for our in-state residents and then we had for many years that 3-to-1 ratio, he said. When you put 3-to-1 ratio out-of-state or international, the price got pretty expensive to come to SIU if you were from out-of-state or international.

Thursday, the Board of Trustees voted to decrease international and out-of-state tuition from three times to two times in-state tuition. Based on tuition this year, that would mean tuition and fees would drop from $3737 to $2657.

Taking that into account and our relations with alumni across the globe, things may be on the upside, Jackson said.

We have a wonderful network of friends, alumni and former students around the world, Jackson said. We’ve been doing this for 50 years, and there’s nothing better than satisfied customers students who went home, had a good experience in Carbondale and who think well of the place. That personal attention of word of mouth is crucial and has usually worked for us.

Jackson said there are some things that seem small, but some students have formed negative thoughts of an occurrence that happened more than five years ago.

There are some local factors. We’ve heard lots of anecdotal evidence that even some obscure things that probably shouldn’t have made much difference may have hurt for a while, he said. The legend has it the fire in the dorm over there (The Pyramids Apartment fire in December 1992) was supposedly directed toward the international students.

Even that has been thrown out as a hypothesis. I should hope that has faded by now because that was so long ago.

Jackson also said the University must look at what may seem as small complaints.

Even though some things might look sort of minor as complaints, we need to work on them.

Four international students said the cost of living in Carbondale, the tuition at SIUC and the fact that students are very segregated are some of the things that they dislike about SIUC.

Jin Dong Jang, a junior in radio and television from South Korea, said a teacher in New York recommended he attend SIUC after he showed interest in moving to the Midwest.

The director of Marymouth recommended me to go here, Jang said. My grades are not that good so I didn’t go to (University of Illinois) Urbana-Champaign.

SIU is increasing my ability to speak English. Teachers are very helpful here. America has more technical equipment and it is more practical to learn it here.

Jang said a big problem in coming to SIUC is the cost of living expenses and the cost of tuition.

It is so complicated to get financial aid and it is expensive to live here, he said.

Jang said the University’s move to decrease tuition is too late since the Asian economy is so shaky.

It is too late to decrease tuition, he said. Now that the economy back home is bad, it is making it hard to live in America and right here in Carbondale.

Ana Sari, a senior in history from Malaysia, said she heard about SIUC from her brother-in-law and it was recommended to her by her fellow employees back home.

My brother-in-law chose SIU for me. He introduced me and my husband to SIU, she said. I was a teacher before I came here, and there were many teachers back in Malaysia that went here and taught here. They said this was a good school.

Sari said finances would be a problem if her state government in Malaysia were not be paying for her education here.

It is now expensive because of the currency exchange, she said. But for me it is OK. My state government is sponsoring me to come here.

Sari said moving to Carbondale for many international students is a big culture shock from their native country. She also cited the Halloween riots as something that frightened her.

Sari said she will recommend SIUC to her brother who is studying civil engineering.

Kenichiro Kurata, a senior in University Studies from Japan, was instructed to come here because of his previous education at Nakajo, SIUC’s overseas campus.

So far the teachers have been very helpful and students are helpful as well, he said.

Kurata agreed with Jang that the general population at SIUC is very segregated, but he expects that is normal on many campuses.

I have difficulty talking to people outside of my race, Kurata said. But that is my own personal problem.

Kurata said tuition at SIUC was very high but should be expected for international students who want to get an education in America.

SIUC is not cheap especially because of the Asian economy, he said. Colleges in Japan are a little cheaper.

But, I came here to learn English and get a better education than I would in my country.

Kurata plans on bring his expertise back to Japan to get a job in his minor, marketing.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is at the forefront of international enrollment in the state of Illinois because of the university’s excellent reputation, a UIUC administrator says.

The UIUC has had an increase in international enrollment from 3,038 in fiscal year 1996 to 3,190 in fiscal year 1998.

SIUC experienced a decrease from 2,291 in fiscal year 1996 to 1,310 in fiscal year 1998.

At UIUC, 2,688 of international students enrolled are graduate students. At SIUC, 585 are graduate students.

Foreign students represent about 2.5 percent of all four-year enrollments and 10.1 percent of graduate enrollments, according to Open Doors.

Ivor Emmanuel, director of the Office of International Student Affairs at UIUC, said reputation and high quality academic programs are two of the top reasons why international students attend UIUC.

There are many forces that bring international students here to U of I, Emmanuel said. International students have said we have a great reputation overseas and that we have quality programs for graduates.

Students have passed on by word of mouth that we have high quality academic programs, so that has benefited us.

Emmanuel listed such factors as good research facilities and research opportunities and working with distinguished faculty as more reasons international students choose UIUC for their graduate school.

An international student pays $4,506 to attend UIUC while they pay $3,737 to attend here at SIUC. The cost will be less after SIUC’s international tuition is lowered.

Emmanuel said that the cost at UIUC may be a little bit higher than SIUC, but students have said that they are extremely satisfied with their choice.

Compared to our peer institutions, we offer a better quality, size and scope, he said. So our cost is a bargain.

Jackson said the news of SIUC’s international drop has been floating around campus for many years now and that the University is working harder now to do something about it.

Believe me we’ve thought about it and worried about it and studied it for about a year now, he said. It has certainly worried me to death.

Jackson said SIUC is keeping up with other universities in the area of technology.

We’re doing many things with technology, including publications being on the net, and being out there with good, attractive brochures, he said. We just opened our doors and they came for generations. Now we’re out there having to compete.

We’re increasing attention to the matter and we haven’t done it as systematically in the past as I hope we will in the future.

Vinson said that the University has just recently been participating in International Fairs across the world, which may soon prove beneficial.

The first time we sent someone to International Fairs in Finland and Sweden, there were representatives from community colleges there, she said.

SIUC first attended International Fairs in fall 1996.

Vinson said everyone in the University must play their part in spreading the word about SIUC.

We all have to do something, Vinson said. This year we have almost 20 sites to go to for recruitment.

Vinson said that once the recruitment troubles improve, SIUC will perfect the retention of international students.

We definitely will stop the drain, she said.

Vinson said the efforts could get SIUC back in the rankings for international students.

We can increase enrollment and gradually, over a three-year period, get back on top. Our ultimate goal is to get us back to the top 10 or the upper teens, and I think we eventually can do that.