During his 2009 visit to Shanghai, President Obama made a public promise to sharply increase the number of Americans studying in China. That promise became the 100,000 Strong Initiative, introduced by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last May with the stated goal of doubling the number of Americans studying in China by 2014. However, the U.S. State Department explicitly said that no public funds would be provided to assist with the effort, and suggested instead that colleges turn to the private sector to raise an estimated $68-million.
Even those of us who are committed to the goal of sending more American students to China realize that making the case for major gifts to meet the goals of the 100,000 Strong Initiative, and competing with other worthy causes for much-needed funds, is difficult at best. While it’s true that some philanthropic funds do find their way to supporting study abroad and other international programs, the reality is that only $3.25-million has been committed since President Obama’s goal was announced, leaving $64.75-million to go. We are, therefore, compelled to identify and cultivate new sources of financial support.
Which brings us to the fact that there is one source of private-sector funds that is virtually untapped: tuition revenue from foreign students who come to American shores to receive the best education the world has to offer. The export of our educational services—including the matriculation of foreign students who pay for their educations at our universities—is a huge reservoir of private funds that remains underutilized.
Because of changing demographics in the United States—including the fact that fewer high-school graduates are immediately entering college, a trend that is expected to continue for at least the next few years—our colleges have a growing capacity and need to recruit substantially more fee-paying international students. By shifting priorities and institutional financial practices, American institutions can redirect a small percentage of tuition from those students to create a pool of funds to support the education of Americans overseas—in China and elsewhere. Not only must universities make that shift, but they must also expand their capacity to recruit global students through new partnerships and practices.
Government agencies and programs also have a critical role to play if we hope to attain the 100,000 Strong goal. Logical partners for that effort include the State Department’s EducationUSA, which provides information and assistance to students interested in an American education at advising centers around the world, and the Department of Commerce’s U.S. Commercial Service, which offers marketing support in select countries to American colleges. Simply asking colleges and universities to raise $68-million from private sources is not sufficient leadership. Government agencies involved in international education must collaborate with each other, with colleges and universities, and with the private sector to expand recruitment dramatically—in other words, to embrace change as sweeping as the 100,000 Strong Initiative.
Indeed, a change of mind-set is required. The State Department’s Bureau of Educational & Cultural Affairs, which finances EducationUSA and crucial exchange programs like the Fulbright Program, continues to view international education in its historic role—that is, primarily as an instrument of public diplomacy—even as international education has emerged worldwide as one of the most rapidly growing export sectors. It is vital that the new dynamics and opportunities afforded by this development be fully and strategically realized. If the State Department and the Department of Commerce can come together on a coherent national approach to aggressively expand the recruitment of foreign students—which would help reduce our trade deficit with China—we could go a long way toward obtaining the financial resources we need to achieve the goals set by the Obama administration. Within our colleges and universities, there is already growing momentum to develop new fiscal models that will redirect incoming funds to assist international-program development and American students who want to study abroad, but the lack of interagency cooperation hampers our nation’s ability to achieve such ambitious goals.
Success will require a degree of cooperation and an elevated level of discourse that are now sorely missing, but that we in higher education very much hope will develop in the near future. The 100,000 Strong Initiative provides both a reason and an opportunity for U.S. government agencies to join our academic institutions and private-sector recruitment companies in finding workable and realistic approaches to achieving our objectives.
Our options as institutions of higher education should go beyond asking for philanthropic support; we want to be engines of economic growth. We ask only that a collaborative approach to unleashing our potential start now.
