“For Some Foreign Students, U.S. Education Is Losing Its Attraction”

This can actually be true for American students interested in working abroad or in the global fields as well.  You may want to consider a degree abroad as well.**DB

 

“For Some Foreign Students, U.S. Education is Losing Its Attraction”

by Karin Fischer via “New York Times“

SEOUL — Each fall, thousands of students from South Korea arrive on American campuses. They come from a culture that views education as the key to success, where mothers and fathers save to send their children overseas. On top of tuition, parents shell out for test prep and cram schools, supplemental English lessons and recruitment agents to shepherd them through an unfamiliar admissions process. In the past, only a small elite pursued advanced degrees internationally; today, many sons and daughters of the nation’s emergent middle class go abroad.

This is South Korea but the description could fit China equally well.

Recently however, after years of robust enrollment increases, graduate applications from South Korea to American colleges have fallen off; and last year the number of South Korean undergraduates in the United States also dropped. Fewer South Koreans study in the United States now than did five years ago.

South Korean students who study abroad often find that they lack the local connections to get a job when they return home, says Jaeha Choi, director of student recruitment and admissions at SUNY-Korea, the State University of New York’s campus outside Seoul, South Korea’s capital.

Softening interest from South Korea, the third-largest supplier source of international students to the United States, could serve as a warning to American institutions that have grown to rely on tuition revenue from China, the largest source. . . .

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“China, US Go Tit for Tat over Student Spying Cases”

In response to the previous article talking about the US Espionage Video.  I’m not sure how much of it is true, but I pretty much find it despicable that any nation would endanger the welfare and futures of students in that manner.

by Julie Makinin via “Stripes.com“

“BEIJING — Call it a 21st-century version of Mad magazine’s Spy vs. Spy.

Three weeks after the FBI rolled out an odd, ripped-from-the-headlines microfilm about an American college student who was recruited to spy for Beijing, China has now released its own, very similar tales of young Chinese students being lured into espionage activities by foreign agents.

The student spying stories come as the U.S. is trying to encourage more Americans to study in China, and as China has become the biggest source of foreign students in U.S. colleges and universities.

“Military pressure in Russia not expected to disrupt study abroad program”

Seems to be true of most programs currently going on in Russia, Ukraine, and the Crimea region. However, it isn’t clear yet how many of these programs will continue next year.  ** DB

“Military Pressure in Russia not Expected to Disrupt Study Abroad Program”

by Rebecca Fiedler via “Baylor Lariat“

Despite tensions built in the East between Russia and Ukraine over the past few weeks, the Baylor study abroad program in Russia isn’t turning back.

“I have absolutely no worries about sending our students right now,” said Dr. Adrienne Harris, assistant professor of Russian. “I suppose if things got very heated and there was some impact on visas, that of course would change the situation.”

There is only one Baylor student studying abroad in Russia: Highland Village junior Matt Brinzo. Brinzo is studying for the semester at Voronezh State University in southwestern Russia.

“One of the big advantages of studying in a place like Voronezch is that you’re not surrounded by other foreigners, like in St. Petersburg, so there are more opportunities for students to speak Russian and fewer opportunities to speak English,” Harris said.

He said since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Baylor has had no issues sending one to six students per semester to study in Russia. In general, Harris said, she doesn’t think there would be any animosity from Russians towards American students. Russians typically know Americans are interested in Russia and learning about the country, she said.

“Almost always the response is positive,” Harris said. “Maybe the Russian people will want to talk about politics with our students and defend President Vladimir Putin, but as far as animosity towards students, there’d be nothing serious.”

Brinzo said Americans have advised him that it’s potentially dangerous to be in Russia, but he feels safer in Russia than he did living in Waco.

“I haven’t even felt a glimpse of danger,” Brinzo said.

Brinzo said many Russian people talk to him about the Ukrainian issue and America’s involvement, but they are not hostile with him and he feels the same about some political issues as they do.

“I get an earful from every single Russian about how America is ridiculous for our views on the whole Ukraine situation, and on a lot of points I agree with them,” Brinzo said.

He said he sympathizes with the opinion that the U.S. has been inconsistent . . . .

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“Asian Universities Catch Up with U.S., Britain: Annual index”

by Shadi Bushra via “Reuters”

Univ. of Tokyo took #1 (Pic not originally linked to art. Art. had no photo)

LONDON (Reuters) – Leading Asian universities are catching up with their competitors in Britain and the United States in rankings, measuring everything from reputation to research funding, released on Wednesday.

The top institutions in Japan, South Korea, China and Singapore generally rose in the annual index published by Britain’s Times Higher Education magazine, continuing a “power shift from West to East,” . . . . “