It took Fahad Almutairi 16 months to learn English well enough before he was ready to go to college in the United States. Almutairi, a 20-year-
old native of Saudi Arabia, wanted to earn a bachelor’s degree in fire protection engineering. He looked at several colleges in the U.S. that offered the program, including the University of Maryland. He chose UNH, he said, because it was the best.
“Fire protection is popular in Saudi Arabia, but they have no schools with bachelor’s [programs],” he said. “There are petroleum companies and oil companies there, so they need fire protection.”
Almutairi began at UNH in the fall 2011 semester. He said the college is perfect for international students, whether they are “African, Arabian or South American.”
Other international students apparently also feel that UNH is perfect for them. According to a report by the Washington, D.C.-based Institute of International Education, UNH had the fourth-highest number of international students in Connecticut in 2011, ranking it behind only the University of Bridgeport, Yale University, and the University of Connecticut.
The international student population at UNH reached 773 in 2011, accounting for more than 12 percent of the university’s overall enrollment of 6,385 for the year. International students accounted for just over 10 percent of the total in 2010, or 602 out of 5,949 students enrolled.
The growth rate for international student populations at colleges in Connecticut was 9.4 percent for 2011, nearly double the nationwide growth rate of five percent, according to the IIE’s report. Overall, there were 10,137 international students at colleges throughout the state.
Karima Jackson, the director of UNH’s International Services Office, said that international students bring benefits that domestic students can’t get any other way. “They have something that the American students usually don’t have – experience with studying abroad,” she said. “They also bring business and diversity. When we mix, it creates a more whole student.”
The IIE report also emphasizes the economic benefit that international students bring. In 2011 alone, estimated foreign student expenditures in Connecticut reached approximately $300 million. That money is not just spent in the universities. Students spend at local businesses on food, clothing, entertainment, and more.
Jackson only joined the ISO in September, but said she has noticed the increase in students from other countries over her short time there. She said it may be because of several factors, including the recruiting agencies that UNH uses and the trimester schedule that allows some students to graduate more quickly. The most important factor, she said, are the high-quality programs that the university offers, such as electrical sciences, engineering, and MBA.
The ISO’s main goal is to help international students maintain the F1 visas they need to attend college in the U.S., but Jackson said they end up helping with all sorts of other issues. Students may need to get drivers licenses. They may have confusion about where to go for academic needs. They may want advice on navigating some uniquely American institution outside the university. “The list can go on,” she said. “Every day, it’s something new.”
One of the difficulties is that there are over a hundred countries for international students to come from, all with different cultural expectations and practices. For instance, Fahd Jadoon, a second-year graduate student in UNH’s MBA program who works in the ISO, said that when he first moved to Minnesota from his home of Pakistan, he had trouble finding food that was kosher.
“There were not a lot of international restaurants in the area,” he said. He later discovered that Minneapolis had a much more diverse offering of foods. He said he feels comfortable now living in the New Haven area, which has a similar wealth of diversity.
Jackson thinks that one of the biggest current challenges for the university is figuring out how to bridge gaps between the international students and their American counterparts. She said she has been working on several outreach efforts to bring different groups of students together, partly by involving other faculty and staff to encourage cultural exchange. “They [international students] are not being acclimated to the university as well as they should be,” she said.
Jadoon, on the other hand, said that the teachers at UNH do a good job of fostering interaction between students. As an example, he pointed out that teachers will often assign groups of students to work together, rather than allowing them to choose their own groups and self-segregate.
Jackson also has high hopes. She said her office is preparing for more growth and is looking forward to putting on the International Festival in April. The event will be a chance for groups from all over the world to share their cultures with other students.
Meanwhile, Almutarai says he is already happy to be making new friends. For him, being an international student at UNH is one of the most positive things he’s done. “It’s a great experience that you can learn a new culture, learn a new language, and get a bachelor’s,” he said.
