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On November 14, 2016, President and CEO of the Institute of International Exchange (IIE) Allan Goodman kicked off International Education Week with the annual Open Doors Report on the International Education Exchange (IEE). In attendance at the National Press Club event in Washington, DC were Evan Ryan, Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA); Rajika Bhandari, Deputy Vice President for Research and Evaluation at IIE; Christine Farrugia, Senior Research Officer at IIE; and Peggy Blumenthal, Senior Counselor to the President of IIE.
To introduce International Week, the event began with a brief video featuring a greeting from the U.S. Secretary of Education John King and multiple students who sent portions of their educations in other countries. The video was centered on the White House-launched hashtag #StudyAbroadBecause as each student finished the phrase with their personal stories that sent them abroad. John King called on all students, emphasizing that young people around the world should study abroad because “it is an investment in your future.”
After the video, the session focused on the findings of the Open Doors Data. Bhandari began by elaborating first on International Student Data. Bhandari concluded that China is now the number one provider of international students to the United States with a 7.1% growth in students studying at American institutions. Of these international students coming to the U.S., students majoring in STEM subjects (specifically engineering) have recently surpassed those majoring in business, the former top major for international students. Bhandari posits that the number of students coming to America will experience fluctuation as political conflicts are intensified and resolved, thus affecting scholarship money and visa procedures in certain regions and making education abroad a less feasible option.
In her presentation on Study Abroad Data, Farrugia remarked that over half of U.S. students who studied abroad this year went to European countries, resulting in a 5% growth of American students in Europe. The top receiving country of American students, however, was South Africa. Farrugia highlighted that two-thirds of American students abroad are women. The methods of studying in another country have diversified as well with the introduction of non-credit educations, volunteer services, and internships in addition to formal classroom credit programs and opportunities to earn full degrees abroad.
With extensive experience as an abroad student and teacher, New York University School of Law professor James Sexton reflected on the data presented by Open Doors. Sexton enthusiastically supported the efforts of institutions that continuously add more diverse opportunities for education abroad, making the option academically appealing and financially feasible: “We [US educational institutions] will be redefining what the best of education is,” remarked Sexton, “and the best education of the 21st century, a century of hope, has got to include this agenda.”
The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.
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Open Doors Report on International Education Exchange
glass globe on the book
November 23, 2016
On November 14, 2016, President and CEO of the Institute of International Exchange (IIE) Allan Goodman kicked off International Education Week with the annual Open Doors Report on the International Education Exchange (IEE). In attendance at the National Press Club event in Washington, DC were Evan Ryan, Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA); Rajika Bhandari, Deputy Vice President for Research and Evaluation at IIE; Christine Farrugia, Senior Research Officer at IIE; and Peggy Blumenthal, Senior Counselor to the President of IIE.
To introduce International Week, the event began with a brief video featuring a greeting from the U.S. Secretary of Education John King and multiple students who sent portions of their educations in other countries. The video was centered on the White House-launched hashtag #StudyAbroadBecause as each student finished the phrase with their personal stories that sent them abroad. John King called on all students, emphasizing that young people around the world should study abroad because “it is an investment in your future.”
After the video, the session focused on the findings of the Open Doors Data. Bhandari began by elaborating first on International Student Data. Bhandari concluded that China is now the number one provider of international students to the United States with a 7.1% growth in students studying at American institutions. Of these international students coming to the U.S., students majoring in STEM subjects (specifically engineering) have recently surpassed those majoring in business, the former top major for international students. Bhandari posits that the number of students coming to America will experience fluctuation as political conflicts are intensified and resolved, thus affecting scholarship money and visa procedures in certain regions and making education abroad a less feasible option.
In her presentation on Study Abroad Data, Farrugia remarked that over half of U.S. students who studied abroad this year went to European countries, resulting in a 5% growth of American students in Europe. The top receiving country of American students, however, was South Africa. Farrugia highlighted that two-thirds of American students abroad are women. The methods of studying in another country have diversified as well with the introduction of non-credit educations, volunteer services, and internships in addition to formal classroom credit programs and opportunities to earn full degrees abroad.
With extensive experience as an abroad student and teacher, New York University School of Law professor James Sexton reflected on the data presented by Open Doors. Sexton enthusiastically supported the efforts of institutions that continuously add more diverse opportunities for education abroad, making the option academically appealing and financially feasible: “We [US educational institutions] will be redefining what the best of education is,” remarked Sexton, “and the best education of the 21st century, a century of hope, has got to include this agenda.”
The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.
