The University experienced a rise in the past year from 103 internationals students in fall of 2012 to 121 students in fall of 2013.
“Monmouth University currently has 121 international students from 32 countries, including India, China, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, and Israel,” President Paul R. Brown said.
The number of international students pursuing college degrees in America is on the rise due to the country’s “higher value” on education.
According to an Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange, the number of international students enrolled in American universities has increased by seven percent during the 2012-2013 academic year. This percentage represents nearly 820,000 international students, setting a record high and a 40 percent increase from the prior decade.
David Acuna Camacho, a sophomore international business major, said, “An American education is more valued than most … I came to school in America because the education over here is way better than back home and because of soccer.”
A native of Costa Rica, Acuna Camacho knew he would always attend an American university and even admitted that he did not try very hard to get accepted in his home country’s colleges.
“If I go back with a degree from an American school, I would get a job over someone [in Costa Rica],” Acuna Camacho said.
Brown added validity to Acuna Camacho’s statement, “Other parts of the world have excellent educational institutions, such as Cambridge and Oxford in the United Kingdom, Tokyo and Kyoto in Japan, and Toronto in Canada, but the U.S. remains a special destination. Many educational institutions abroad emulate American institutions not only in terms of the physical environment, but also the curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular environments,” President Brown continued. “Moreover, an American degree, as opposed to a local degree, is usually more marketable and provides more financial stability.”
Danica Dragicevic, a junior international business major, agrees that an American degree poses more opportunities, not just after graduation, but also while in school.
“This is a great opportunity to earn a valuable degree and play basketball at the same time. In Europe there are no opportunities like that,” Dragicevic said.
As a native of Belgrade, Serbia, Dragicevic said that if it were not for athletics, she would not have been able to study in the United States. “My parents would not be able to pay for me to go to school in USA and live by myself,” Dragicevic said. “I don’t think that I would be willing to sacrifice so much as I am sacrificing now just to go to school. I love my family too much.”
Both Acuna Camacho and Dragicevic are members of a certain trend, the rise of international student athletes in America. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) posted in Nov. 2010 that the number of international student athletes in collegiate sports has risen more than 1,000 percent in the last decade.
“For the Fall 2013 semester, there are 121 international students registered, this includes both undergraduate and graduate students. Of these 121, 18 or approximately 15 percent are student athletes,” Claire Alasio, Associate Vice President of Enrollment Management at the University, said. “Now, if you were to consider only undergraduate students, then yes, it is a large number – there are 40 international undergraduates, and 18 of them are athletes.”
While there are many international student athletes at the undergraduate level, there are more international students overall at the graduate level. Maria Kukhareva, a graduate student in the Department of Communication, originally received her undergraduate degree from St. Petersburg State University in her home country of Russia. Kukhareva believes that an American degree is more credible than degrees from other countries. Kukhareva said, “Yes, [it is] valuable all over the world.”
President Brown is hoping to increase the number of international students enrolled in both the undergraduate and graduate programs at the University. “The University has a number of partnership agreements with institutions in China and India that have helped to increase our number of international students. Moreover, we work very hard to serve international students well once they are here—educationally, programmatically, and culturally. A global emphasis is central to our future, and will be fully examined in the upcoming strategic planning process,” Brown concluded.
PHOTO TAKEN by Jim Reme
