WPR News Headline — Although more international students are enrolling at American universities, the UW-Madison has actually seen its numbers drop this year.
The Institute of International Education reports foreign student enrollment nationwide has gone up eight percent, for an all time high of about 672,000 students.
Jason Jonely is the Assistant Director for International Student Services at UW-Madison and says they’ve seen a decrease in the number of foreign students this year. International student enrollment is 3,787 this year, down from last year’s enrollment of around 4,200. He says the state of the world economy may be to blame. He says one of the countries with a declining enrollment is South Korea, where the won has decreased in value against the U.S. dollar.
Jonely says except for a slight drop after the events of September 11, the number of international students at UW-Madison had been steadily increasing.
The most foreign students at UW-Madison come from China, followed by South Korea and India.
UW-Madison ranks 19th among American universities that have at least 1,000 international students. UW-Milwaukee ranks 155th.