With just-released research suggesting that there are gaps in colleges’ understanding about international-student retention, conference-goers here at the annual meeting of Nafsa: Association of International Educators are asking: So, what can we do to ensure students don’t leave without earning their degree?
A standing-room-only session on foreign-student retention and recruitment offered some possible strategies.
Lawrence H. Bell is executive director of international education at the University of Colorado at Boulder, which, like many institutions, has seen a surge in international enrollments, particularly at the undergraduate level. In just four years, Colorado’s international numbers have climbed from 1,200 to 1,800, or about 6 percent of the student body.
Mr. Bell’s advice is to collaborate and cooperate. Solutions to the problems foreign students face are often not found in a single office on the campus. “You need to work from a broader base,” he said. “Find your allies.”
Some offices have expertise that can be applied to international students. For example, offices of multicultural education already have experience with students from diverse backgrounds.
In other cases, other campus groups that have close contact with students may need to have special preparation to better meet foreign students’ needs. Faculty members, for instance, may need to slightly alter their teaching styles for second-language learners and those who come from pedagogical backgrounds that don’t encourage the questioning of professors.
Sixteen months ago, Mr. Bell set up what he calls the international-student support network, a group that meets informally to talk about issues facing foreign students. The network, which also exchanges ideas over an email list, has grown to about 30 members, from offices as varied as student services, academic advising, the English-language program, and the bursar’s office.
Together, they’ve dealt with issues including the need for more training about the university’s honor code and financial wrinkles faced by students from countries on which the United States has placed economic sanctions.
The group’s regular, agenda-less meetings let the university tackle problems as they arise, Mr. Bell said.
Attacking problems head-on is the approach used by California Lutheran University’s School of Management. “We go at them like a SWAT team,” said Harry A. Domicone, a professor of business administration there.
Early in each term, faculty members in the business school identify students at academic risk, and the school tries to figure out the root of each student’s struggles. If a student’s grades fall to the point that he or she is placed on academic warning, an automatic review of the student’s admission file is triggered, to see if there were any warning signs missed in the admission and recruitment stage, Mr. Domicone said.
“Having a student come and then leave,” he said, “doesn’t benefit anyone—especially the student.”
