Foreign Students Are Valuable Asset to a University

FOREIGN STUDENTS ARE VALUABLE ASSET TO A UNIVERSITY

Over 200,000 foreign students study in American universities and colleges. They come from just about every nation on Earth. Their majors are as diverse as their ethic and national backgrounds. Some universities have very large foreign student populations. For example, the State University of New York at Buffalo has over 4,000 foreign students, which represents 10 percent of its total full-time student population. There has been a debate recently as so to the value of foreign students to the academic and social atmosphere at American universities. Some people have argued that foreign students are burden on the American higher education system. They cite the students’ limited English abilities and say they are unprepared for American style education. They argue that the student population in America is “already diverse enough” and that foreign students simply take seats away from American students. However, these negative assessments of the value of foreign students to the American university social and academic culture are simply uninformed opinions. On the contrary, foreign students contribute significantly to the American university experience and life: academically, socially, and financially.

One indication of the significant contribution of foreign students to American universities’ experience is a contribution to academic development of universities. There is no denying that students arrived to the US to study, probably, some of the brightest students in the world. Long before arriving to study they go through natural selection; they have to proof their compliance with the requirements of studying in the US. The decision itself to go to study to another distant country is challenging. Lofty aspirations to take all from the opportunity force foreign students work hard, which is often challenging to American students, relaxed in stable process, to work