Why Higher Education Needs a Foreign Policy

Remarks at Conference of Southern Graduate Schools
Little Rock, Arkansas
25 February 2006

More Americans today believe they have been abducted by aliens than study abroad.  Gallup polls and Roper research studies indicate that some 4 million citizens have had these so-called close encounters. That is a larger number, in fact, than the total the Institute records in more than half a century of doing "Open Doors."

In a country where 80% of the citizens do not have a passport, there are also precious few connections to the earthly world.  Three years into the war in Iraq, over 80% of college-educated adults cannot find the country on a map.  Most Americans cannot name correctly the top five countries supplying the U.S. with oil.  And more people watch the Oscars than watch all of the evening news programs combined.

These statistics underscore for me just how important this Conference is to the world in which all today's panelists work.  Many of your schools lead the way in encouraging Americans to study abroad and members of this Conference constitute a quarter of the institutions that host 1,000 or more international students.  Of the ten leading metropolitan areas where international students enroll, four are here in the South. 

My colleagues and I are grateful for all that you do to support the Fulbright and Gilman Programs, which we have the honor to administer on behalf of the Department of State, and for the many accommodations made to attract and retain international students.  I especially appreciate the tuition reductions and waivers at the graduate level that allow many international students to be here on the same terms as students from your own states enjoy.  Another aspect of the Institute's work involves the rescue of scholars; we have been doing that on an ad-hoc basis since 1920 and more recently through the new Scholar Rescue Fund Endowment.  Since 2002, we have rescued over 100 scholars threatened with death and living under very dangerous conditions; some are now safely ensconced in your schools and offering your students not only their disciplinary expertise but also a window on the world and the conflicts they left behind but which are never very far from the headlines.  Often, in fact, the only chance an American student has to engage with someone from another culture is in your classrooms.

I also need to thank the members of this panel for their contributions to international education.  The foreign study advisors who belong to NAFSA are on the front lines of helping students adjust and make the most of their experience here.  NAFSA programs make sure that best practices are encouraged and widely shared.  The Lincoln Scholarships will add enormously to the funds that schools and individual students have to make study abroad a reality for all at the undergraduate level.  And over the years and around the world, we have partnered with the UNCF to assure that the study abroad opportunity reaches all of America so that when these citizen diplomats go abroad, they reflect our country’s diversity.

All of us over the past several years have been engaged in defending the non-immigrant student visa.  Your help, willingness to reach out to your Congressional delegations, and practical advice about the problems that need to be solved have been central to finding the way to balance securing our borders with assuring that our academic doors remain open.

But my main message this afternoon is that your work is not done.  In fact, you are going to be even more challenged in the future and play an even more important role in international education.

Currently, some 2 million students are getting a higher education degree in a country outside their own.  For a variety of demographic and political reasons, the demand will grow exponentially over the next decade and no other country will have America’s capacity to provide enough seats behind the open door. More than half of all international students enrolled in American higher educational institutions are at just 125 schools; so we know that there are many more schools which could host international students than currently do so.  The U.S. has one-third of all institutions of higher education in the world and – even more significant – some two-thirds of the entire world’s faculty also teach here. 

This means that for a considerable period, the U.S. will remain the world’s leading educational destination and that your institutions have a stake in assuring that international students discover the America and the education you represent.

That is, in part, why you need a foreign policy. 

You need to determine how many students you would like, in what fields, and from what countries, and how their presence will benefit your residents and your states.  Partly, it will help you know when to recruit, where to grow, and how to avoid being inundated with applications.  But even more important, it will help you make sense of what are by now dozens or more of agreements and memoranda of understanding about international relationships, most of which were driven by faculty who are soon to retire and whose experiences and encounters may no longer be relevant.  And unlike nearly every other country in the world, the U.S. has neither a ministry of education to determine the boundaries nor a central policy mechanism to develop strategic plans.

 Equally important, you need to have a policy that encourages and even drives yours presidents to pay "state visits" to other countries.  Foreign officials, as well as prospective students and their parents need to hear first hand and at the highest levels that they will be welcome on your campuses.  Joining the delegation of a State Trade Mission is another way to reach out.  And any visit at a presidential level gives U.S. officials in the field that chance to prove demonstrably that America really cares about keeping its door open.

I used to think that we all would be well served if the nation had a comprehensive international education policy.  But the diversity and public-private mix of our system of higher education makes that neither possible nor really desirable because so much depends on decision and preferences at the local campus level to create really meaningful exchanges and enduring relationships.  Of course, it is vitally important that the federal government continue to play a supportive role by funding educational advising offices abroad that promote all our campuses, that officials from the President on down communicate the nation’s commitment to keeping our academic doors open, and by coordinating department and agency policies and procedures as any new visa systems or requirements are introduced. 

By having your own foreign policies, you can reinforce support for these efforts and also engage your own faculty in the process of making internationalization a part of the university's vision.  And it is through that process that you will help us all to reach a time when “international” will be part of what it means for earthlings to be educated -- even in America.