The growing effort to attract international students to UIS

EDUCATION | Tom Irwin

Over the last decade the University of Illinois Springfield has slowly but steadily increased the number of international students in attendance, reaching 5 percent of the overall student body in graduate studies and working toward the same ratio for undergraduates by the fall of 2012. Almost 63 percent of the 218 international students come from a region near Bangalore, India, to earn graduate degrees in computer science through a special fast track program offered by UIS that allows completion in less than the normal two years. Shruthi Gennepally from Hyderabad, India, graduates after completing her master’s program this summer and gets to walk on May 14 in the UIS graduation ceremonies. Several of her cousins and an older brother graduated from UIS and she always planned on coming here to do her graduate work.

“This was my first choice. Everyone from my city talks about coming to UIS. I’m totally into computer science and graduated with my bachelor’s in 2007,” she explains. “Mostly there aren’t any changes in lifestyle for me here. I hang around friends from back home, eat the same food and do the same things. After I graduate, I’ll work here for awhile, then return home.”

She hasn’t visited downtown Springfield yet, but took a trip to White Oaks Mall and spent time in Florida and Houston this past winter. (“I love beaches.”) Her post-graduation plans include participating in a federal program administered through the UIS International Center called Optional Practical Training. OPT allows immigrating students, who under a regular student visa must agree to return to their home countries after completing school, to remain working in the U.S. for another year in their field of study. Students in science, technology and math fields can apply for a 17-month extension to help fill shortages in the U.S. workforce.

Other students come to UIS from around the globe, including Afghanistan, Canada, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Mongolia, Morocco, Nigeria, Nepal, the United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yugoslavia and Zambia. Hyejeong Chang, originally from Doegu, South Korea, intends to graduate in the fall of 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and management. She spent time living on both coasts and prefers the Midwest, choosing Springfield for its small campus and attractive tuition prices.

“I came to the U.S. to study and to get exposed to a more challenging but inviting environment and to avoid the intense competition back home,” says Hyejoeng, who has lived in the U.S. since she was 15, first as an exchange student in New Mexico, to attend the New Mexico Military Institute. “I can’t help the stereotypes some people think of, but I can break down intercultural and gender barriers. The International Student Association here at UIS has helped to promote acknowledgement of our diversity. I had a great class with Professor [Hinda] Seif about cultures and prejudices. We never talk about that back in South Korea.”

Since its inception as Sangamon State University in 1972, international students have played an integral part in the student makeup of the University of Illinois Springfield. When the soccer program was in full swing, players from around the world (predominantly Turkey) joined the successful team, expanding the global reach of the student population. Attractive as a small, yet affordable, campus, steady growth in the international sector continued, especially after the school became associated with the prestigious University of Illinois system and expanded into a four-year institution.

Following a national trend, during the last decade the UIS administration made a strategic move to attract more foreign students from around the globe and began aggressive recruitment actions to get a share of the burgeoning worldwide student market. With the official hiring of an admissions counselor specifically to deal with international recruiting, a director of student affairs for international students and trips

abroad by the admissions department, all within the last three years, UIS makes no bones about actively seeking scholars from around the globe.

According to the interim director of admissions, Lori Giordano, there are simply fewer high school students graduating in Illinois than in the recent past, due to overall population shrinkage. And more options are available to those students who want to attend higher education facilities. That led to the decision for UIS to head for the lucrative markets of China and India, as well as smaller countries like Vietnam and Pakistan.

“Previously we worked what we call ‘armchair recruiting’ through websites, Facebook, and email, to focus on international recruiting to diversify the campus and increase our enrollment,” says Giordano. “We then realized we needed to do more and actually meet students and families to establish relationships and decided to focus on Asia, primarily China and Vietnam.”

This focusing led directly to trips overseas to China in September and Vietnam in December of 2010. Agents working there set up college fair meetings with prospective students and helped with the distribution of UIS informational materials. Plans known as 2+2 agreements offer students a chance to sign up to attend UIS for the final two years after finishing two years at a school in their own country, basically agreeing to become what are normally called transfer students here. These agree ments allow students to plan toward spending a few years abroad, which includes learning English, considered the most difficult obstacle for scholars adjusting to a new life in a different country. Fortunately, UIS planned for that as well.

“We greatly expanded our English as a Second Language program to accommodate the new international groups in conjunction with our overall plan,” says Giordano. “All students attending here whose native language is not English take one of a few types of language proficiency tests before admission.”

These standardized tests are part of a nationwide service that most universities use to ensure students not native to English are capable of participating properly at a college level. Another aspect for consideration when admitting students of other countries entails evaluating previous academic experiences, including comparing high school and college grading qualifications in native nations to the admissions standards at UIS. It’s done on an individual basis by admissions counselors aided by a website list of how educational systems in other countries equate to U.S. principles in evaluating international transfer credit.

Ellie Haag, a three-month employee of UIS as its second international admissions counselor, brings to her new job the experience of teaching for a year in China during 2003 and the personal intercontinental background of a German father and an English mother. She recently returned from a recruiting trip to China in April and noted the differences between the Chinese and American ways of secondary education.

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