University looks to boost international interests
Charlene Choi | Senior Graphic Artist
Posted: Friday, January 20, 2012 10:00 am | Updated: 11:55 pm, Thu Jan 19, 2012.
The number of international students has risen from 3,420 to 4,544 in the past year, so the University is looking into more ways to increase their overall global experience.
Charles Calahan, assistant director of Global Learning Faculty Development, said Purdue wants to expose its students to diversity and globalization by increasing international student relationships with national students.
“We live in a global society and for our students, when they graduate, almost every single one is them is going to be involved in some aspect of international relations,” he said. “They will interact with people who didn’t grow up in the United States. Purdue wants to do the best job we possibly can to help you do that.”
Michael A. Brzezinski, dean of International Programs, isn’t worried about the challenges that face with the increasing amount of students, because there are excellent support services in place. Purdue is working on improving and increasing those services.
“Purdue is a place that takes its responsibility to students seriously, and we want to help students succeed,” he said. “When we have a greater amount of students who have challenges, it does present more challenge on the institution to meet them.”
Brzezinski said in the past two to three years, more students from China have come to study at Purdue. He believes the reasoning behind this is parents are now able to fund their children’s education because of China’s booming economy. Calahan, on the other hand, said Purdue’s credibility is the reason for the increase.
“Purdue has an excellent reputation in China, and parents want their children to come to Purdue,” he said. “I think the other thing that happens is that the programs that Purdue excels at fits the interests of the Chinese.”
In order for Purdue to start working on its goals of increasing relations, it has formed focus groups. A focus group met on Oct. 4 and 24, 2011, to discuss issues foreign students are encountering while studying at the University. Out of 54 international students, 12 Chinese students were present. Calahan also referred to research that came out in Australia presenting the same concerns as the Purdue group regarding the desire to increase international relationships.
“The research says that national or domestic students really want to learn from international students, and the research says that international students really want to learn from domestic or national students, but they are always hesitant,” he said.
The students spoke up and said they would like to have more opportunities for leisure time activities between national and international students. Brzezinski said Purdue is looking at this very issue.
“We are looking at how to assist international students and integrate them on the Purdue campus,” he said. “We have several initiatives regarding classroom dynamics, considering housing food services and we also looking at modifying BGR for internationals.”
The focus groups the University are conducting now are only for the faculty. Purdue will soon be working on setting up focus groups for international students entering Purdue’s top programs: engineering, science, management and liberal arts.
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