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Foreign students in American colleges: Time for change in policy and practice

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Abstract

Institutional characteristics for the total population of more than 2,300 American colleges and universities are related to the proportionate foreign student enrollment in each institution through stepwise multiple-regression analysis. Large proportionate numbers of foreign students are enrolled in American private colleges, in colleges located in the West, and in institutions of high quality (as determined by institutional revenue and average achievement test scores of enrolled students). It is proposed that American institutions of higher education, particularly those which are found to enroll proportionately few foreign students, undertake efforts to increase their ratio of foreign to domestic students. A broad discussion is also presented with respect to the educational experience of foreign nationals in the United States and the institutional and national policies which affect foreign students. Given the greater balance in the supply-demand situation of highly trained American manpower in the 1970s, and the availability of many unfilled student positions in American institutions, the implementation of such policies and programs may allow a greater inflow of foreign students to domestic colleges.

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This research was supported in part by Grant GI-34394 from the RANN program of the National Science Foundation. I am indebted to Jeffrey E. Dutton for his assistance in the computer processing phases of this project and to Richard A. Humphrey for a number of comments and suggestions for revision.

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Bayer, A.E. Foreign students in American colleges: Time for change in policy and practice. Res High Educ 1, 389–400 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00991672

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