National security, international education trade can coexist
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- For the United States, educating international students is an $11 billion business. But in the aftermath of Sept. 11, concerns about national security have prompted questions about the wisdom of admitting hundreds of thousands of foreign citizens into the country so that they can study at U.S. colleges and universities.
Steve Heyneman, a Vanderbilt University professor who spent two decades working on education policy with the World Bank, says the business of international education and national security don't have to be conflicting principles, and he offers practical steps to ensure the viability of both. But, he says, success will require a joint effort of government and higher education.
Heyneman proposes that changes be made in student visa applications to distinguish between long-term and short-term courses of study, that "sponsors" be used to help maintain contact with student visitors and that government and higher education share the cost of hiring private companies that would carefully monitor the residence of international students and the validity of their visas.
Some political reactions to the war on terrorism have ignored the importance of international students to the U.S. economy, he says. On the other hand, some in higher education have downplayed the need for change, citing the low proportion of students who are likely to be a risk and the logistical and managerial burdens of more carefully monitoring international students.
"Universities and associations which represent universities should make it clear that they understand and are willing to ensure public safety," says Heyneman, professor of international educational policy at Vanderbilt's Peabody College.
However, ensuring public safety is more complex than the public might understand. "While universities can be expected to keep clear records of who is a student, they cannot be expected to track individuals in terms of travel, residency, employment or financial status." Small colleges and institutions cannot afford to provide such services and even large universities don't feel it is appropriate for them to perform police and investigative functions. But such functions are needed, he says.
That is why he favors contracting with private companies to provide such services in the same way that private companies provide services under contract for such important public functions as transportation, prisons and welfare services.
?The function of these private contracts would be to monitor the residence and enrollment of the students, quickly report and perhaps even arrest some and bring them to appropriate authorities when there are infractions.?
The companies would be paid by those who benefit from having international students in the United States -- the nation, the state, the local community and the educational institution.
Heyneman notes that international students spend $11 billion in tuition and fees to U.S. institutions of higher education, not including the money they spend for other purposes while they are here. Those funds help boost the local, state and national economies. The significance of international education has grown so much that it is recognized by the Department of Commerce as the nation's fifth largest export service.
To make monitoring of students more feasible, Heyneman proposes that student visa applications be based on whether short- or long-term courses are being sought. "Degree programs delivered on a regular basis and which last two or or more years are fundamentally different from programs delivered on an ad hoc basis and which may last only for a couple of weeks or months."
The vast majority of students come to the United States to take full courses of study at established colleges and universities.
"The fact is neither the immigration bureau nor many educational institutions know the whereabouts of those admitted to the United States for educational reasons. Students drop out, change residence and shift from one program to another," Heyneman said.
Monitoring students who are enrolled in "long, rigorous programs of study" is "a more manageable task," he says. Significantly more complex is monitoring the 80,000 who enter in order to study English or other proprietary programs, such as mechanics, cosmology and flight training. "This category of education is more risky for our security."
Such students "often come from less secure backgrounds, and with widely varying levels of preparation. Their occupational goals are more subject to change. The programs they enter have no coordinated schedule, no standard length, standard cost, source of finance or completion requirements."
To help monitor international students, Heyneman proposes that a sponsor system be enacted, similar to that used for those who wish to immigrate to the United States. Families, churches and charities, he says, can be used ?more consistently and more systematically for helping students maintain constant contact with legal authorities.
"By sharing the financial burden, by finding a pragmatic solution to the monitoring problem," he says, "Americans can acknowledge the virtues of having international students yet not have to fear that some might abrogate the principles of hospitality and wish to do the public harm."
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