The Foreign Student Factor

Information is provided on issues related to the presence of international students in U.S. institutions of higher education, focusing on the general characteristics, goals, and attitudes of the foreign students in relation to those of their American counterparts. Five sections include: (1) general characteristics (gender, age, marital status, family background, and personal goals); (2) selection of institutions (quality considerations, recommendations of others, and financial considerations); enrollments (undergraduates, graduate students, full-time and part-time students, and college age population); (3) enrollments (opening fall enrollment and full-time equivalent counts by type of institution); (4) quality of student and institutional quality (student qualifications and degrees awarded by institutions of varying selectivity); and (5) students' aspirations and types of degrees (life and career goals, school goals, and types of degrees by level). Overall, foreign students are a small factor in American higher education. They are more similar to, than different from, American students in many respects. The tuition they pay in public institutions more closely reflects actual costs than what is paid by domestic students, and they often fill empty seats not sought by Americans. The impact of foreign students on American higher education is minute (in 1982, 22,631 bachelor's degrees went to foreign students and 924,246 went to citizens). The data reviewed gives little reason not to welcome foreign students to American institutions of higher education. Tables are included. Contains 8 references. (SM)