Fewer international students expected at SEMO this fall

International-student enrollment at Southeast Missouri State University is expected to drop for fall 2017, but that’s not cause for alarm just yet, according to university officials.

Based on the number of applications received and approved visas so far, the number seems lower than last fall’s 992, dean of students Debbie Below said.

“We expect a decline, but we don’t know where it’s going to come in for sure,” she said. “It’s hard to predict.”

Kevin Timlin, executive director of international education and services, said it’s easy to look to the travel ban enacted earlier this year by the Trump administration as an explanation, but he said it’s more likely students — and their parents — are seeing uncertainty.

“The travel ban hasn’t been fully enforced, and there has been a lot of discussion about changes to immigration, a lot of talk about a lot of different things,” Timlin said. “For an international student to come to the U.S., it is a costly endeavor,” up to $1,000 just to apply, take necessary tests and secure a visa.

“At this point in time, it doesn’t seem to be working in our favor,” Timlin said, but the U.S. has the infrastructure in place to give an education people need.

Additionally, several market factors are influencing the numbers, Below said.

More institutions are competing for international students, Below said. Where once 100 schools might have attended a recruitment fair, that number now looks more like 300, she estimated.

China and other Asian countries are working to develop their higher-education infrastructure, Timlin said, but cannot meet the current demand.

The top 1 percent of China’s high-school seniors number more than the entire high-school senior population in the United States, he said.

Below, who also is vice president for enrollment management and student success, said her office frequently is asked why so many students recruited to Southeast are from China and India.

In 2016, those two countries sent nearly 50 percent of all international students Southeast recruited.

India’s population is about 1.34 billion people; China’s, 1.41 billion. The United States has 324.46 million.

Below said it makes sense a higher number of students would come from India and China, where population is greater, but if those countries produce slightly fewer students, developing relationships with other countries is an important part of the plan.

Timlin said from his perspective, international-student recruitment is about more than educational output.

“The driving force is to provide our students and graduates the skills and competencies they need to compete in a global environment,” he said. “We firmly believe in the value they bring to campus in different ways.”

It’s also about the community at large, Timlin said.

“If our students are out there meeting business owners, church members, that awareness and empathy grow,” he said. “That’s part of what we’re trying to accomplish.”

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

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