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Focus on change in USA
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Educators in the USA point to a good mix of nationalities and good growth, in part due to scholarship schemes in the Middle East. Meanwhile, educators’ associations are campaigning hard for regulatory change. Amy Baker reports.
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We have had a big surge in Libyan students. These students are all Libyan government sponsored – it is a relatively new development,” says Jean-Marc Alberola, President of Bridge Linguatec in Denver, CO, explaining one reason for good growth at his school this year.
Anthony Bailey, President of Kaplan Aspect, also cites demand from the Middle East as benefiting the bottom line across Kaplan Aspect schools in the USA: “We continue to have a strong partnership with the Saudi Ministry of Education, providing quality educational programmes to their students,” he reports, referring to the better known of the scholarship schemes currently operating (see LTM, June 2006, page 29).
However, with increasing numbers of scholarship holders intent on graduate study in the USA, rather than undergraduate study with preliminary English training of up to a year, there are already anecdotal reports of a slow decline in Saudi students among English language programmes; who were in second position in terms of student weeks in 2006 (see chart).
And not all institutions had success in this domain anyway: “The Saudi government will not approve scholarships for community colleges,” relates Ken Bus, Director of the International Education Program at Glendale Community College in Glendale, AZ. Bus reports only stable numbers at his programme overall, although he does cite rising numbers of students from Vietnam within the nationality profile. “They are now our number one nationality,” he says.
Elsewhere, a range of nationalities such as Korean, Chinese, Colombian, Vietnamese, Kuwaiti and Turkish are also signalled as important source markets by other education providers. “Brazilians are finding it easier to get the visa and with their strong currency, numbers are up,” reports Ryan Boyd of Language Systems in Los Angeles, CA, who also predicts a 15 per cent growth in numbers overall for 2008.
While enrolment figures are generally very healthy, industry associations UCIEP and AAIEP have been busy campaigning for further change that would benefit the short-term ELT market. There are three main areas of focus; short-term visa entry, accreditation (see left) and the Sevis fee, which students must pay to fund a centralised student tracking database. Both organisations oppose a proposed hike in the fee from US$100 to US$200.
May Arthur at AAIEP explains, “The AAIEP president and advocacy streams, with members of the UCIEP Steering Committee, are in close contact with AAIEP lobbyists who in turn work constantly with key legislators critical to international education exchange.”
One area of focus is pushing the proposal that short-term students should be able to enter the country on a tourist visa if studying for less than six months. As Kevin Beisser, Assistant Director at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee ESL Programs, points out, this would greatly improve the working environment for language programmes, and such a proposal has been included in a bill that is working its way through congress.
Arthur offers hope that the message is being heard: “Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) is proposing a new visa category for short-term academic study,” she says, adding that if it is approved, “This visa will be categorised as F4.”
Overall, the prognosis is good for the USA. Arthur says AAIEP is expectant of further growth in the future. “With a weak dollar, attractive destinations and quality programmes, more and more students will choose the USA as a destination,” she says.
Quality goal for the USA
Michelle Alvarez, President of UCIEP, states that the regulatory change it is supporting, aside from the Sevis fee amendment, is “the requirement of accreditation of intensive English programmes”. She notes that UCIEP steering committee members liaise with the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State about such issues.
Kara Bundy, Marketing Coordinator at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA, supports this position. “If intensive programmes were required to be accredited in order to issue I-20s for students visas, quality would be more consistent and therefore the reputation of language programmes in the USA would be less subject to the bad experiences of unfortunate students who end up in unethical programmes set up to make money rather than educate the students,” she asserts.
This is certainly the direction that the UK has gone in, and the USA could be the next country to follow suit. Anthony Bailey at Kaplan Aspect points out another problem that occurs when less reputable language schools are able to operate. “One issue we find is that some students take advantage of quality programmes like ours to strengthen their [visa] applications,” he says, “with the intention of transferring out to cheaper, lower-quality schools when they arrive.” If only quality accredited schools were able to operate, perhaps this problem could be averted.
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