With low fall enrollment numbers for international students predicted, one NIC administrator said you can expect to see this college target the market more effectively in the future.
Graydon Stanley, vice president for student services, estimated that the upcoming fall enrollment report might show less than a dozen international students studying on campus.
Stanley said the numbers aren’t unusual for a college that has typically avoided recruiting markets outside the U.S. in the past.
The sole exception lies with the athletics’ program, which Stanley said he predicts will be responsible for the enrollment of 80 percent of international students in the upcoming report.
However, NIC has strict guidelines regarding the maximum number of international students it can recruit and give athletic scholarships to Stanley said this is to encourage couches to look for talent in their own region.
“It would be silly for us to have more international athletes than national students on our athletic teams,” Stanley said.
Stanley said he hopes to use his previous experiences bringing international students to the College of Southern Idaho [CSI] can be translated to NIC, and one way he hopes to do that is by looking into several programs that would recruit students for the college.
One of these programs is the International Research & Exchanges Board [IREX], who Stanley said he worked with for 10 years at CSI.
IREX is ran by the US Department of State that particularly deals with countries the United States is developing relationships with, particularly countries such as Kurdistan, Turkmenistan, Khuzestan, Germany and many countries that formerly belonged to the Soviet Union.
Stanley said the program only includes “the best of the best kids” that are high academic performers and is fully sponsored and costs the students nothing.
In exchange, students must be willing to perform community service during their stay and are required to participate in cultural events and programs.
“You get great kids who are financed and are provided funds to go to cultural things and will be engaged in your community,” Stanley said. “It’s a great way to enter the international market while minimizing risk.”
Another avenue Stanley said NIC is exploring is a program called Canada College, an intensive English language program for international students that brings the students to America, trains them and places them at colleges.
Canada College would be solely responsible for recruitment, and would refer students to NIC after they finish the program.
“We’re looking to see if that would be a partnership that would be mutually beneficial,” Stanley said.
Stanley said in the past NIC has attempted to start similar programs on campus, but the attempts were fraught with problems and budgetary concerns.
“It’s expensive to do and your numbers are pretty small and your costs are pretty big,” Stanley said.
Stanley said even if NIC ultimately decides not to partner with Canada College, it will continue to screen for international students that are already fluent in English.
“You get the culture and the richness they bring from their country without the investment you would have to make in language training,” Stanley said.
In the end, Stanley said there’s one recruitment strategy NIC will never change.
“The very best recruitment tool we have is students that come here and have a good experience,” Stanley said.
