The number of foreign students studying in the United States increased substantially in 1997-98. This year's total of 481,280 represents an increase of 5.1 percent over last year's figure, building on last year's near 1 percent increase and appears to reverse a six-year trend of declining foreign student enrollments. These findings and others are reported in the 1997/98 edition of Open Doors.

This 1997-98 increase reflects enrollment growth from 13 of the 15-largest source countries and exceptional growth from three countries: Korea, China, and India. By contrast, last year, 7 of the 15 leading places of origin showed declines in enrollment, while the other 8 showed only slight to moderate growth. More than half (57 percent) of the 23,000-student increase comes from Korea, China, and India. While the United States hosts international students from virtually all international homelands, there is a marked concentration of enrollments from particular places. Just over 41 percent of all international students studying in this country come from the leading five places. Japan, China, Korea, India, and Taiwan, collectively, account for 201,000 international students. Indeed the leading 15 homelands, of which 9 are Asian, account for two-thirds of all U.S. international enrollments.

While the overall foreign student total is up markedly this year, certain sectors of the higher education system have benefited disproportionately. Between 1993 and 1997 community colleges have shown the strongest growth in international enrollments (19.9 percent) of all institutional types. Within institutional classifications, however, the more selective institutions have shown stronger increases in enrollment than have less selective colleges. Among the most popular fields of study, international enrollments in business (up 4.7 percent), computer science (up 20 percent), and the arts (up 14.7 percent) demonstrated exceptional growth this year.

But What About This Year?
The total number of international students enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities appears to be holding steady for the fall 1998 term. The number of institutions reporting either increases in enrollments or no change over 1997 levels exceeded 55 percent for all Asian countries surveyed. An overwhelming proportion of institutions reported enrollment jumps for students from India and China. These findings were based on the returns from an e-mail survey of 776 U.S. colleges and universities. The survey was conducted jointly by the Institute of International Education (IIE) and the National Association of International Educators (NAFSA) during the month of November 1998. These findings suggest that the 5.1 percent enrollment jump for the fall 1997 reflects the continued attraction of U.S. higher education for international students despite the widely reported Asian economic turmoil. The internals of the survey also suggest that the overall health of our foreign enrollments may prove to be quite misleading for individual institutions. The reality is that the Asian crisis is real and may be producing two classes of institutions--those that have proactively addressed the crisis and those that have been either passive or slow to act.

In all, 345 institutions responded to this survey. For the 273 institutions that provided both fall 1997 and fall 1998 total enrollment data, 136,877 students were enrolled in fall 1998. This figure is virtually the same as reported for these institutions in fall 1997. The 136,877 students represent about 28 percent of all international enrollments in the United States. Of the 320 institutions providing country--specific responses the majority of institutions reported that they had experienced an enrollment increase or no change in enrollment between fall 1997 and fall 1998 for many of the leading Asian countries. When the institutional responses were divided between institutions that reported total enrollment increases between 1997 and 1998 and those that reported enrollment decreases, it became apparent that the overall gainers did two important things. They held on to their Asian students in greater proportions than did the decliners and they broadened their enrollment pools to include areas other than Asia. The most likely sources for non-Asian students were South America, Canada, and Western Europe--especially the United Kingdom and Germany.

Institutions were also asked to report the most important factors that accounted for the enrollment changes on their particular campus. The tenor of the comments was especially striking between the gainers and the decliners. Institutions with enrollment increases attributed their success to better recruitment, competitive pricing, and the development of attractive academic programs. Campuses on the rise reported enhancing international student services by focusing on retention and personalized attention. Most gainers report expanded and aggressive recruitment--including responding rapidly to prospective student inquiries, the use of the web to enhance international alumni involvement, international exchange agreements, and the focus on recruitment from diverse geographic regions. Some campuses reported that their pricing policies for internationals were designed to be competitive both internationally as well as with other institutions in their regions. This was especially so for community colleges. One respondent noted that "because of the economic crisis, more Asian students are coming to this community college from four--year institutions, because of the lower educational costs here." Finally the gainers were also active in developing and expanding graduate programs that were attractive to internationals and in providing some campus-based support for international graduate students.

An important word of caution for the future: several responders suggested that the overall enrollment picture on campus might be masking a real drop in the number of new admissions, especially at the undergraduate level, for students from the Asian tiger nations. One medium-sized southern institution reported that a major gap was developing between total students overall and new admissions totals. For example, while total Indonesian enrollments showed a 6 percent increase, a 20 percent decrease was seen in new admissions; Malaysia showed a 6 percent overall increase and a 40 percent decrease in new students; and among Thai students there was a 10 percent overall increase and a 55 percent drop in first-time enrollments. Another moderate-sized institutional respondent noted that "the increase in our international population is due to employment layoffs in the home countries. Many students are viewing this time as an opportunity to continue their education and to improve their level of education--preparing to reenter the work force when it regains its stability."

These survey findings suggest that the enrollment increases seen in fall 1997 are likely to persist into 1998. While it should give observers comfort that the Asian flu has not turned into pneumonia, the findings also point to the importance of institutional responsiveness in abating the effects of global financial dislocation. Institutions that acted proactively to retain enrolled Asian students, recruited aggressively both within Asia and beyond, and instituted institutional systems and programs that are responsive to the needs of international students appear to have expanded their international enrollments.

Open Doors 1997/98 can be ordered from IIE Books at 800-445-0443 toll free in U.S. or by e-mail from <iiebooks@pmds.com>. The new edition may be purchased at the IIE Online Bookstore: http://www.iiebooks.org or from Amazon.com