DA: Speaking from my institution our faculty are very receptive to international students and very accommodating for students who have second language issues for example. They give them extra time for exams, they work with them, they spend a lot of time with them. The students I think are welcoming although I won’t lie to you, all international students will tell you they wish they could make friends more easily with domestic students. And that’s something we work on at the student affairs level as well.
News and business analysis for Professionals in International Education
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Deborah Alm, Study Western Massachusetts, USA
The PIE: Could the consortia as a whole work on that?
“We try to make sure students are connected in some way so they know that there’s an international student presence within the valley
DA: From time to time we’re able to bring international students from other colleges onto our campus or take them to meet up with others. Spiritual life offices are recognising that we have students who might have different religious practices so they’re bringing students together to talk about how that’s working on other campuses. Muslim students met with Muslim students on another campus for example to discuss mutual challenges and how they could make it better. We try to make sure they’re connected in some way so they know that there’s an international student presence within the valley.
The PIE: How big is the valley geographically?
DA: It’s probably 30 miles between the northern most and the southern most school.
The PIE: So it’s a fairly small area really.
DA: It is a small area and there are schools in the area that aren’t in our consortium because they are elite schools. Student wise there are probably 2,500 international graduate and undergraduate students. The biggest in the consortium is the University of Massechusetts who has1,000. Among the smaller schools, Springfield College probably has the most international students, about 88-90.
The PIE: Is it a marketing benefit that you don’t have so many internationals?
DA: Yes. We have enough so they don’t feel totally isolated but we’re not saturated by any one nationality or geographic area.
The PIE: Tangibly do you think you’ve seen an increase in enrolment in the region since you launched the consortium?
“The population of 18 year-olds is dropping…those of us who work in the field are eager to fill those beds with international students because we know it makes it a better campus for everybody”
DA: We’re all growing our international students very intentionally and all the schools in the consortium have seen growth. A year ago we had 55 international students at my university. But I don’t want to be presumptuous about that because we’re just starting out. We’ve been a presence for two years although we’ve been meeting for longer than that trying to get it off the ground. In the big scheme of things we’re small and we’re young but we’ve had representation out at various fairs and agent fairs and as people have travelled internationally we continue to promote the region.
The PIE: Why are you growing?
DA: Access to intensive English language programmes and people getting out additional funding for international students on several of the campuses. We’re hoping that the consortium is able to let people know that there is financial support from the institutions for international students. The population of 18 year-olds is dropping so they’re eager to fill some of those beds and those of us who work in the field are eager to fill those beds with international students because we know it makes it a better campus for everybody.
The PIE: So if someone was reading this interview and they’d never been to western Massachusetts how would you sell it to them?
DA: I would say it’s an area historically rich in education; some of the finest institutions in America are located in the valley. And it’s a place with easy access to both metropolitan areas and outdoor adventure, skiing, hiking, backpacking. So it offers a little bit for everybody.
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