Latest news with #internationalization
New York Times
01-06-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Are International Students Good for American Universities?
Several years ago, a colleague teaching at Miami University, a large state school in Ohio, kindly invited me to give a talk there. After picking me up at the airport, he suggested that we have lunch at a Sichuan restaurant near campus. I was skeptical. Sichuan, in small-town Ohio? 'Trust me,' he said. 'It's fantastic.' And it was. The reason a first-class Sichuan cook had set up shop in this unlikely location soon became clear. At the time, the university was enrolling large numbers of Chinese students — more than 1,400 in 2014, for example. In fact, my colleague went on to tell me, significant social tensions had arisen, since the Chinese students were much wealthier than the American ones, to say nothing of the townspeople. As he said this, he pointed to a Chinese student driving past in a Maserati. The Trump administration's attempt to keep Harvard from enrolling foreign students has drawn new attention to the remarkable internationalization of American higher education over the past two generations. In the 2023-24 school year, no fewer than 1.1 million international students were enrolled in colleges and universities in the United States, or almost four times the number in the 1979-80 school year. (Total enrollments at universities rose by a little more than 50 percent over the same period.) Like many large social changes, this one happened without much conscious planning or debate. Foreign students kept applying in ever greater numbers, and universities happily admitted them, since non-Americans receive merit- and need-based financial assistance at much lower rates than Americans do. It has taken Donald Trump's crude and vengeful swipe at Harvard to draw much attention to the subject. Now, it seems that a serious debate may finally start. Has the internationalization of the American student body been a good development? Should it continue? To be sure, no one should take the Trump administration's position on the issue seriously. In announcing the suspension of Harvard's participation in the Student Exchange and Visitor Program (which a judge quickly blocked with a temporary restraining order), Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said: 'It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multi-billion-dollar endowments.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Bloomberg
28-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
China Plans Commodities Overhaul to Attract Global Investors
China is on the cusp of its biggest move yet to open up its vast commodities markets, after the Shanghai Futures Exchange unveiled an internationalization plan to streamline access for overseas investors. The country's biggest raw materials bourse is soliciting views on a proposal to let participants post foreign exchange as collateral for yuan-denominated trades, according to a statement on Tuesday. Restrictions on foreigners and their capital are an oft-cited reason for China's failure to punch its weight in international markets.
