(THE PICKET) – Shepherd University has signed agreements with four universities to recruit more international students
Three of the schools are Anahuac University in Mexico, Osaka University of Commerce in Japan, and the University of the West of Scotland. The fourth school that Shepherd formed an exploratory agreement with is the University of North America in Fair Lakes, Virginia, with the idea being that international students would move from a bridge program there to undergraduate and graduate programs at Shepherd.
“Shepherd’s internationalization effort has been embraced at an institutional level,” said Konrad Turnball, an admissions counselor at Shepherd, in an email. “This process really began with the hiring of Dr. Charles Nieman as the director of international affairs.”
Turnball also highlighted other successes that Shepherd University has had over the last year including hiring Yin Star as a full-time study abroad director, the creation of the Global Studies program under Dr. Aart Holtslag, and the creation of an intensive English language program as well as the deals made with the foreign universities.
These universities join the University of Nicosia in Cyprus and the Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University in Turkey in having formed agreements with Shepherd. These agreements stem from the falling out Shepherd University had with Navitas, an international student recruitment agency, after Navitas reviewed the university’s business model for the prospective partnership.
In a Sept. 3 article with The Picket, Shepherd University provost Christopher Ames detailed the university’s plans going forward to recruit more international students. Ames specifically mentioned that Shepherd planned to work with different embassies to recruit more international students.
“Shepherd continues to recruit international students through our undergraduate and graduate admissions programs, and through the use of a few carefully selected international agents,” said Ames.
In recent years, international students have become a more integral part of college campuses in the United States. According to an article from NPR, international students contributed $31 billion into the U.S. economy in 2014 and 2015. For those international students who come to colleges in the United States, it allows to them to pursue courses they might not be able to in their native countries because their college admissions is entirely dependent on their test scores.
Having an increased number of international students also benefits American students by exposing them to different languages, cultures, and customs. It allows them to form friendships that go across borders, and helps them to become more well-rounded global citizens.
“This fall, we enrolled 15 new international students representing 14 countries,” said Ames in the Sept. 3 article with The Picket.
“Because of the improvements we’ve made and increased international enrollment, Shepherd saw a 500 percent increase in entering international students for the fall 2016 semester over the year prior,” said Turnball.
Westley Elkins is a staff writer for The Picket. He can be reached via email at jelkin01@rams.shepherd.edu and followed on Twitter @WesElkins
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