Wright State’s University Center for International Education (UCIE) is continuing efforts to retain and welcome more international students to campus.
UCIE is now focused on creating a more sustainable tomorrow for the Wright State as it continues to bring together students from near and far.
The current efforts and goals of UCIE are to boost efforts to recruit international students but “to look at international affairs overall,” William Holmes, associate vice provost of International Affairs said.
“It’s just as important for me to send Americans abroad as it is to bring foreign students here.”
Years ago, there was a recruiting unit called the International Gateway. It has since phased out due to unsustainable recruiting practices.
“[It] was set up to speed up the process of recruiting international students,” Holmes said. “there (were) a lot more students in the past, but that was during the International Gateway.”
Since UCIE was established, many recruiters and student representatives helped create a more diverse student body at Wright State, Holmes said.
Wright State recruiters are positioned in countries across the world. Currently, there are people actively working on Wright State’s in countries across Asia and Europe.
There is not much of a retention problem in regards to international student; currently it is about 70 percent, Holmes said. “International students already have a higher retention rate than domestic.”
UCIE continues to encourage domestic students to take advantage of study abroad options, and to get involved with the office.
Moving forward, one of UCIE’s priorities is to make sure their current practices continue.
“We want to make sure that making a second home here for students is carried on even if we don’t have the full time people in UCIE to do it,” Holmes said.
