IU, Purdue Combined Enroll More International Students Than Harvard
Kyle Stokes / StateImpact Indiana
Students on Indiana University's Bloomington campus.
Ni hao, Indiana!
A new report says the international student population at Indiana’s colleges and universities grew 8.3 percent this year, thanks to an even greater influx of students from China.
Indiana’s growth in foreign student enrollment also outpaced the rest of the U.S., which saw a 5 percent increase.
Overall, the state’s international student enrollment ranks tenth in the nation — and combined, IU and Purdue’s main campuses enroll more international students than Harvard (check out our chart below the jump).
| International Student Enrollment | ||
|---|---|---|
| Rank | Institution | Students |
| 1 | Southern California | 8,615 |
| 2 | Illinois – Urbana-Champaign | 7,991 |
| 3 | New York Univ. | 7,988 |
| 4 | Purdue – Main Campus | 7,562 |
| 5 | Columbia | 7,297 |
| 6 | UCLA | 6,249 |
| 7 | Ohio State | 6,082 |
| 8 | Michigan – Ann Arbor | 5,995 |
| 9 | Michigan State | 5,748 |
| 10 | Harvard | 5,594 |
| 11 | Indiana – Bloomington | 5,471 |
SOURCE: IIE Report |
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Roughly 30 percent of Indiana’s foreign student population comes from China, according to the report, released by the Institute for International Education. International students from India, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia are the next largest groups.
For colleges, a large international student population can be a mixed blessing.
International students are often a financial boon for universities, largely because they can pay full tuition without financial aid.
“The recession has reduced the number of families who can afford to pay the full cost of a degree at a private institution or a public college,” writes U.S. News & World Report, meaning colleges are looking outside U.S. borders for more affluent students.
But as The New York Times reports:
Once in the classroom, students with limited English labor to keep up with discussions. And though they’re excelling, struggling and failing at the same rate as their American counterparts, some professors say they have had to alter how they teach.
