The Institute of International Education recently ranked ASU 11th in the nation as a choice for international students.
The university boasts more than 6,500 international students for the fall 2013 semester, but only a small number of those students have majors based on the Downtown Phoenix campus. As a result, these students often face difficulties in receiving university services.
Of the 6,599 international students — both undergraduate and graduate — at ASU, 206 have majors on the Downtown campus. This is compared to 6,043 on the Tempe campus. The West and Polytechnic campuses have 65 and 285 international students, respectively.
With current enrollment numbers, international students only make up about 2 percent of the student population Downtown, compared to around 11 percent of the Tempe campus’ population.
The W.P. Carey School of Business and the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering have the largest international student populations at the university.
ASU admission services Executive Director David Burge said this disparity transcends ASU and is typical of many American universities.
“We have the largest international interest in engineering, business and the sciences,” Burge said. “(International) students seek out programs that are strong, and we have programs that are strong in those three areas.”
Some Downtown campus colleges only have 10-20 international students, compared with the thousands in the schools of business and engineering.
The College of Public Programs has the largest amount of international students Downtown with 92, followed by the College of Health Solutions with 64 and the Walter Cronkite School with 26.
Public policy freshman Irene Kinyanguli came to ASU with the goal of improving her home country of Tanzania by receiving a good education.
Kinyanguli is studying at ASU with the help of the MasterCard Foundation, an organization that helps Sub-Saharan African students come to the U.S. to receive an education and help their countries.
“A big problem in Tanzania is unemployment. To reduce unemployment you need to bring your own thing and innovate in order to employ people,” Kinyanguli said. “Coming to ASU, I see a lot of opportunities that can give me an opportunity to do that.”
Kinyanguli has these opportunities, but there are still a lot of obstacles in her way. For example, when her myASU address was incorrect due to her international student status, she needed to go see the International Students and Scholars Center to fix it. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but the ISCC’s only office is in Tempe.
“I think it’s not fair. We also need that service down here, at least one person,” Kinyanguli said. “I went all the way to Tempe to change my address.”
The ISSC is responsible for immigration advising, visa/document processing, liaising between the international students and other departments at ASU and helping with any other concerns the students may have.
There are walk-in hours once a week on the Downtown, West and Polytechnic campuses, and students can get advising over phone and e-mail, ISCC director Jennifer Glawson said.
Kinyanguli said she doesn’t feel like there is much of an international community Downtown and said she has met few other international students.
“I’ve not really had the international experience down here. We have international events, but they’re mostly in Tempe,” she said.
Kinyanguli said she thinks ASU should try to create more curiosity about international cultures.
“I’ve found it’s easy to find friends but not easy to keep them because you need something in common,” Kinyanguli said. “By creating curiosity about other cultures, it makes it easier for international students to share their culture.”
Burge said he also sees the benefits of students sharing their cultures at ASU.
“The more diversity in our programs, the better the discourse, the better that learning will be for everybody,” Burge said. “It’s in the best interest of anybody at ASU to get to know and interact with as broad of representation of students they can.”
ASU’s goal is to have 10,000 international students by 2017. The university has seen a large growth in Chinese, Saudi Arabian, Canadian and Mexican students, Burge said.
“International recruitment is a sizable part of what we think about and do in admission services,” he said. “We’ve seen a lot of growth on any number of ASU campus locations.”
Despite the lack of international services and community, Kinyanguli said she has been fitting into the Downtown community just fine.
“Downtown doesn’t have that college vibe, but (with it) being small, it’s easier for me to adjust,” Kinyanguli said. “It’s like a small community, and it’s easier to meet and keep friends Downtown.”
Contact the reporter at amsorrel@asu.edu
