Administrators
lobby for simpler visa process to keep foreign
students
BOSTON (AP) — A steep decline in graduate
school applications from foreign students
has university administrators pushing the
federal government to reform the visa process.
Their argument: The trend could cost U.S.
schools much-needed revenue and research
help, and make America seem isolated in
the eyes of the world.
International
graduate student applications for this fall
are down 32 percent compared with a year
ago, according to a recent survey, and schools
are extending application deadlines so they
don’t lose students still negotiating
U.S. bureaucracy.
Meanwhile,
in public comments and private lobbying,
universities are urging federal officials
to speed up visa applicaions, stressing
that America’s role as a beacon to
the world’s students could be in jeopardy.
Officials
from several California schools and the
Department of Homeland Security discussed
foreign student matters Tuesday at a gathering
in San Diego.
And
representatives from a handful of prominent
schools, including the presidents of Yale
and Princeton, met in New York recently
to explore ways to use the influence of
their trustees to help make their case.
Universities
acknowledge that the importance of foreign
students is not obvious to the public, which
has security concerns after one of the Sept.
11 hijackers entered the country on a student
visa. Some may wonder why foreign students
take up 600,000 slots in American universities
in the first place.
But
administrators insist those slots are as
important now as ever.
‘‘This
is one of America’s most effective
forms of diplomacy,’’ said Douglas
Kincaid, vice provost for international
studies at Florida International University
in Miami, where foreign enrollment is down
10 percent. ‘‘We’re educating
people who will be in influential positions
in science and industry and government around
the world.’’
More
than 90 percent of graduate schools reported
their foreign applications for this fall
declined, according to a survey of 113 universities
last month by the Council of Graduate Schools.
Undergraduate
applications also are down, but not as much,
likely because fewer undergraduates plan
to work on sensitive technologies that require
a more thorough background check.
Feeling
the effects are big, public universities
and elite, private ones like Harvard, whose
president, Lawrence Summers, reported a
sharp drop in international applications
to each of Harvard’s nine schools
in a recent letter to federal officials.
Many
schools count on foreign students to teach
classes and fill labs.
‘‘We
don’t have domestic students to take
their place, mostly in fields like science
and technology,’’ said Stephen
Dunnett, vice president for international
education at the University at Buffalo,
part of New York’s state university
system. The school has 3,600 foreign students,
with applications down one-third this year.
Foreign
students often pay higher tuition, and soak
up little financial aid because they must
demonstrate financial self-reliance to get
a visa. More than 75 percent of their funding
comes from outside the country, according
to the Institute of International Education.
Foreign
students also contribute $12 billion to
the U.S. economy, according to IIE.
Experts
cite several factors for the dip in applications,
including diminished esteem for America
abroad, rising tuition at U.S. schools and
increasingly competitive alternatives in
Europe and Asia.
But
the difficulty, or perceived difficulty,
getting a student visa quickly appears to
be the primary cause.
‘‘It’s
really frustrating because there is no basic
logic to getting a visa,’’ said
Moussa Dao, an FIU computer engineering
student whose two brothers have been unable
to get visas to follow him here, and who
hasn’t returned home to Ivory Coast
since 1999 for fear he would not be readmitted.
The
State Department, which is giving some students
priority interview slots, issued 474,000
student visas last year, accepting 74 percent
of applications. That’s down from
560,000, or 80 percent, in 2001. Secretary
of State Colin Powell and Homeland Security
Secretary Tom Ridge called last week for
Congress to review visa restrictions, and
Ridge discussed visas at a recent meeting
with college presidents.
‘‘We
all want foreign students to continue to
come here,’’ said Russ Knocke,
a spokesman for the Immigration and Customs
Enforcement division of the Homeland Security
Department. ‘‘We want the United
States to continue to be the destination
for education.’’
There
continue to be more international applicants
than spaces available for them, with no
evidence the total number of foreign students
here has yet declined.
Still,
schools say more is help is needed for internationals,
including an ombudsman to investigate cases
that seem to disappear in the system.
Experts
say many foreign students feel they won’t
be welcome here — beliefs that visa
delays only fuel.
‘‘They
say, ’I can go to Canada, Australia.
Why do I need to go to the United States
and put myself in a place where I’m
not welcome?’’ Dunnett said.
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