IHEC Blog a project by David Comp: International Students

Showing posts with label International Students. Show all posts

Friday, May 30, 2025

This CBC News 'How to destroy Harvard University | About That' piece [15:19] w/ Andrew Chang on international students & Harvard is excellent & worth a watch!

https://youtu.be/zuP072Nc_iU?si=vBLmIvQNoTIS6JAZ

Wednesday, November 16, 2022

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona Delivers his 2022 International Education Week Message

Tuesday, November 15, 2022

Secretary Blinken Celebrates International Education Week 2022

Tuesday, January 19, 2021

My thoughts on the 2020 AIRC Annual Conference (Virtual) held November 30-December 11, 2020

I was invited to attend the 2020 AIRC Annual Conference which was held virtually due to COVID-19. This was my first AIRC conference and I was not disappointed! Following is a brief summary of my thoughts on the 2020 AIRC Annual Conference.

Like many things in the field of international education, I watched with much interest the establishment of the American International Recruitment Council (AIRC) and have paid attention to each of their annual conferences via Twitter ever since. I have always wanted to attend the AIRC annual conference but it was never in the cards for me to do so. AIRC reported that they welcomed a record of over 580 participants to the conference this past year. I think the challenge for AIRC (and all international education organizations hosting conferences) will be how to work in virtual components to their in person conferences. AIRC's 2021 annual conference is scheduled to be held in Miami!

While the conference was held virtually I found it to be an incredibly informative and a very well run conference. The conference was held over a two week period from November 30th to December 11th which I found to be a very strategic plan as it allowed me to maintain my work schedule and work the few sessions per day into the mix. I didn't have to block out 2-5 solid days to attend session after session. While there were a few sessions I was unable to attend due to work conflicts I could not reschedule I was able to work almost all sessions into my work schedule. I also found the quality of the sessions to be top notch and incredibly informative. I thank all of the presenters for their time and knowledge as I learned much! What I found to be incredibly helpful and a great add on to the conference were the daily Roundup emails from Jennifer Wright that were incredibly detailed summaries of the day and sessions! You can read a summary of the major conference themes here.

AIRC was also going through a transition during the conference with the retirement of AIRC Executive Director Mike Finnell and the start of Brian Whalen's term as the new AIRC Executive Director during the conference! I've known Brian for many years and before his time as President and CEO of the Forum on Education Abroad. Brian did an excellent job leading the conference with his AIRC colleagues and AIRC is in good hands under Brian's leadership!

In sum, I thought the 2020 AIRC annual conference was fantastic and I was not disappointed! I fully recommend to everyone in the field and especially those whose work focuses on international admissions and recruitment. If your work focuses on education abroad but you want to expand your knowledge in the field I recommend registering for the 2021 annual conference as well as the other AIRC events!

Sunday, October 25, 2020

WES #IntlEdNow Tweetchat: COVID-19 on Campus: Addressing International Students’ Physical and Mental Health Challenges

RSVP at https://knowledge.wes.org/wes-twitter-chat-intlednow-covid-19-on-campus.html

Thursday, October 22, 2020

Institutional Compliance with Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 by U.S. Department of Education & their Oct. 20th press release

In case this was off your radar I thought I would share the following report “Institutional Compliance with Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965” by the U.S. Department of Education Office of the General Counsel that was published this month. The full 36 page PDF of the publication is available at https://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/leg/institutional-compliance-section-117.pdf.

The brief introduction before the Executive Summary of this report states: “The question of foreign influence on and foreign funding of domestic activities has long been a matter of concern for the United States government and the American people. Congress did not task the Department of Education with assessing the positive, negative, or neutral impact of foreign money and foreign influence in American higher education. Rather, Congress asked us to ensure the public had transparency from colleges and universities so that you could make such an assessment yourself and hold those institutions accountable. This report is designed to empower you to make decisions, as an informed citizen, consumer, and taxpayer, about what is or is not appropriate behavior regarding financial interactions between institutions of higher education and foreign sources. We hope you will find it useful”

Additionally, the U.S. Department of Education issued the following press release on October 20, 2020: “U.S. Department of Education Uncovers Vast Underreporting of Foreign Gifts and Contracts by Higher Education Institutions” at https://bit.ly/3dRgiac This DoE press release includes a link to "China's Impact on the U.S. Education System" Staff Report of the Permanent Committee on Investigations of the United States Senate (ca. 2019) at https://bit.ly/2TfSZwX.

This is nothing new but these national security concerns of international students and in particular Chinese students have been growing over the past several years. For example, during an open hearing of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on worldwide threats on February 13, 2018, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio [R-FL] asked FBI Director Christopher Wray about the counterintelligence risk posed to U.S. national security from Chinese students, particularly those in advanced programs in science and mathematics. You can watch their exchange via this past IHEC Blog post.

Given that the DoE press release was from two days ago and the “Institutional Compliance with Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965” report was very recently published these may have been off your radar given our focus on the DHS proposed rule change on D/S and perhaps DHS Operation OPTical Illusion! If you haven’t seen and are interested you can watch a video snippet (5:18) of DHS Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli speaking about DHS Operation OPTical Illusion targeting OPT violations at https://twitter.com/SpoxDHS/status/1318965538186579970?s=20.

Never a dull moment…onward and upward!

Monday, October 19, 2020

The extent to which a decline in international students would adversely affect certain industries in the State [of Illinois]...

Last week I was asked to answer several questions pertaining to international students studying at Columbia College Chicago as part of my day job as Assistant Provost for Global Education. Compiling this data was for a collaborative effort of Chicagoland institutions of higher education and the Illinois state government in response to the DHS proposed rule on D/S.

The final question was "the extent to which a decline in international students would adversely affect certain industries in the State?" There was a quick turn around required for providing the requested data and information but I was able to do some research and prepared the following:

Key Points from Resources:

The Illinois Innovation Index - 2020 University Entrepreneurship Index: Startup Creation Reaches Record Heights by the Illinois Science & Technology Coalition noted that “the strength of Illinois’ universities, especially in STEM fields, attracts students and faculty from around the world. This influx of talent is vital to both Illinois’ workforce, and the creation of new businesses. Among university-supported startups founded over the past five years, an estimated 39 percent were founded or co-founded by foreign-born students or faculty.^{^[1]}

A May 2018 Pew Research Center report found that of the 54,300 foreign graduates who studied in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin area between 2004 and 2016, 68% (37,200) stayed in the Chicagoland area and additional 21,800 foreign graduates arrived from other metro areas to work on OPT. Of these 59,000 foreign graduates on OPT in the Chicagoland area, 53% held STEM degrees. Top areas of study for foreign graduates in the Chicagoland area held degrees in Business, Management, Marketing and Related Support Services (24%); Engineering (20%); Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services (19%); Visual and Performing Arts (4%); and, Mathematics and Statistics (4%).^{^[2]}

The STEM Talent: 2018 Talent Index: Computer and Data Science Lead the Way by the Illinois Science & Technology Coalition stated about the critical role of international students that “Compared with the national average, international students make up a significantly larger share of STEM graduates in Illinois. In 2017, international students were awarded 29.2 percent of STEM degrees in the state, compared with 20.5 percent nationally. Illinois ranks fourth nationally for the number of international students earning STEM degrees. Since 2013, the number of international students earning STEM degrees from Illinois universities has nearly doubled—from 3,727 in 2013 to 7,137 in 2017. Computer science degrees awarded in Illinois are especially weighted toward international students. In 2017, 55 percent of degrees in the field were awarded to international students, compared with 37.3 percent nationally. The number of international students receiving computer science degrees in Illinois has more than tripled over the past five years—from 638 in 2013 to 2,052 in 2017.”^{^[3]}

A March 2019 Foundation for American Policy Brief study by Madeline Zavodny found that there is “no evidence that foreign students participating in the OPT program reduce job opportunities for U.S. workers. Instead, the evidence suggests that U.S. employers are more likely to turn to foreign student workers when U.S. workers are scarcer.” and that “the relative number of foreign students approved for OPT is negatively related to various measures of the unemployment rate among U.S. STEM workers. A larger number of foreign students approved for OPT, relative to the number of U.S. workers, is associated with a lower unemployment rate among those U.S. workers.”^{^[4]}

Additional Resources

Number of Foreign College Students Staying and Working in U.S. After Graduation Surges by Neil G. Ruiz & Abby Budiman for Pew Research Center, May 10, 2018 at https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2018/05/10/number-of-foreign-college-students-staying-and-working-in-u-s-after-graduation-surges/

Opportunity Lost: The Economic Benefit of Retaining Foreign-Born Students in Local Economies by Giovanni Peri & Sara McElmurry for The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, April 2016 at http://giovanniperi.ucdavis.edu/uploads/5/6/8/2/56826033/report_economic_benefit_retaining_foreign-born_students.pdf

- Recording of the panel discussion of the report release at https://www.thechicagocouncil.org/publication/opportunity-lost-economic-benefit-retaining-foreign-born-students-local-economies

Optional Practical Training (OPT) and International Students After Graduation: Human Capital, Innovation, and the Labor Market by Niskanen Center Research Paper by Jeremy L. Neufeld Niskanen Center by Neufeld, March 2019 at https://www.niskanencenter.org/wp-content/uploads/old_uploads/2019/03/OPT.pdf

The Facts about Optional Practical Training (OPT) for Foreign Students for CATO Institute, Cato at Liberty Blog post by David J. Bier, May 20, 2020 at https://www.cato.org/blog/facts-about-optional-practical-training-opt-foreign-students

^{^[1]} Illinois Innovation Index - 2020 University Entrepreneurship Index: Startup Creation Reaches Record Heights by the Illinois Science & Technology Coalition at https://www.istcoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/UE_Index_20_FINAL_5.18.pdf

^{^[2]} Where do foreign student graduates work in the United States? By Neil G. Ruiz, Abby Budiman, Chris Baronavski & Ariana Rodriguez-Gitler for Pew Research Center, May 10, 2018 at https://www.pewresearch.org/global/interactives/where-do-foreign-student-graduates-work-in-the-united-states/?msa=chicago

^{^[3]} STEM Talent: 2018 Talent Index: Computer and Data Science Lead the Way by the Illinois Science & Technology Coalition at https://www.istcoalition.org/data/index/2018-talent-index/

^{^[4]} International Students, STEM OPT and the U.S. STEM Workforce a Foundation for American Policy Brief by Madeline Zavodny, March 2019 at https://nfap.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/International-Students-STEM-OPT-And-The-US-STEM-Workforce.NFAP-Policy-Brief.March-2019.pdf

Monday, July 13, 2020

A Direct and Concise Tweet by Davidson College about their International Students

More at IHEC Blog: Institutional statements on DHS "Broadcast Message: COVID-19 and Fall 2020" barring international students from remaining in the U.S. if they take all courses online

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

Institutional statements on DHS "Broadcast Message: COVID-19 and Fall 2020" barring international students from remaining in the U.S. if they take all courses online

July 14, 2020 update: A short time ago, DHS/ICE rescinded this guidance and Jessica and I will no longer be updating this list!

This list is being compiled in collaboration with my colleague Jessica Oldford, Director of Global Student Experience | Global Initiatives, Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan – Ann Arbor.

If you are aware of any institutional or association/organizational statements not listed please email David Comp at international.ed.consulting@gmail.com.

On Monday, July 6th, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued Broadcast Message: COVID-19 and Fall 2020 that will have a significant impact on the U.S. higher education community. This paragraph from the DHS Broadcast Message is the crux of the matter:

"Students attending schools operating entirely online may not take a full online course load

and remain in the United States. The U.S. Department of State will not issue visas to students

enrolled in schools and/or programs that are fully online for the fall semester nor will U.S.

Customs and Border Protection permit these students to enter the United States. Active

students currently in the United States enrolled in such programs must depart the country or

take other measures, such as transferring to a school with in-person instruction to remain in

lawful status or potentially face immigration consequences including, but not limited to, the

initiation of removal proceedings."

IHEC Blog a project by David Comp