International students flock to UF

UF, Florida's flagship research institution, is No. 12 among the top 25 public and private universities in the country when it comes to international student enrollment.

According to a report released today by the Institute of International Education, 3,749 of the 49,650 students enrolled at UF in 2006 came from other countries. That was just 200 less than at UCLA, and almost 100 more than at Harvard. The top school was the University of Southern California in L.A., with 6,881 international students.

International enrollment at U.S. universities for the 2005-06 academic year marked an 8 percent increase, with almost 143,000 enrolled compared to 131,945 the previous year. And preliminary figures for fall 2006 show more than half of universities reporting an increase.

The countries of origin with the largest increases include Korea, Taiwan and Mexico. India remains the No. 1 country represented, with China No. 2.

UF this year has 816 students from India and 615 from China.

Comments

[Bob]

Kind of ridiculous to make the Harvard comparison. Harvard has fewer than 7,000 undergrads and less than 20,000 including post graduates. UF has over 35,000 undergrads and about 50,000 total.

You don't need to be a math major to understand that Harvard has at least 2.5 times more foreign students on a percentage basis.

If the rankings were posted, I'd be willing to bet that all of the Ivy league schools, plus other top tier schools like MIT, NYU, U of Chicago, Northwestern, Duke, Virginia, Stanford, Cal, etc. have a higher percentage than UF.

[Bill Martz]

Sounds like Tom didn't get into UF and is still salty over it.

[Frank]

Steve, the money that students from outside of Florida pay in tuition is a large part of the reason why in-state tuition is so low and Florida residents aren't taxed more for education.

The reason why a place like UF can handle so many international students is because they are, predominantly, graduate students in engineering and the sciences. America just does not produce enough quality grad-level students to keep those programs buzzing (and American innovation flowing).

Personally, I think it's good to hear that we're connected into what's quickly becoming a global marketplace of ideas and commerce.

[Tom]

And no, Steve, you xenophobic moron, foreign students are not eligible for federal loans or state grants - they pay their own way.

[Tom]

Why should anyone care who attends UF or USF. They're nothing but glorified community colleges for the products of Florida's failed public school system.

[steve oneal]

I hope none of these international students are receiving any of my tax dollars at these state schools. I hope they aren't taking a spot from any state residents. USF said they will have to freeze enrollment because of budget cuts but we will find room for out of state and even worse out of country. We started state school system to provide affordable education for our children here in the state of Florida, not every kid in the world. I'm tired of my tax dollars going for everything except the taxpayers needs.