February 02, 2001

WKU's International Student Enrollment Growing

Bowling Green, Ky. - Western Kentucky University's international student population continues to grow.

Figures for the spring 2001 semester show about 425 international students enrolled at Western, up from 250 in the spring 2000 semester, according to Dr. Larry Caillouet, Director of International Programs.

"From the number of applications our office is receiving, I think Western can count on more than 500 international students this fall," he said.

The enrollment growth is surprising because Western doesn't have international recruiters, Dr. Caillouet said. The University is promoted internationally by the English as a Second Language program, but that alone isn't responsible for the growth, he said.

"The main thing is the word-of-mouth from international students already here," Dr. Caillouet said.

For graduate students, Western's decision to waive non-resident tuition has made a difference, he said. All non-resident graduate students pay the resident tuition and fees rate. Non-resident graduate students are charged the non-resident rate, but the University awards a graduate fellowship equivalent to the difference between resident and non-resident rates.

The largest numbers of international students are enrolled in public health and computer science programs, but enrollment is spread across all academic colleges, he said.

Enrollment also is spread though the international alphabet in 53 countries from A (Albania) to Z (Zimbabwe). The nations with the most students are India, 159; Korea, 42; China, 31; Taiwan, 24; Japan, 14; Canada, 13; Brazil, 13; and Mexico, 12.

To celebrate the contributions of international students, the International Center plans to add 25 flags outside the facility at 1536 State St.

The flags from the United States and the 24 nations with the most international students at Western, will be placed in April. The plans are still being worked out, but Dr. Caillouet hopes to involve students and the community by playing each country's national anthem as its flag is raised and by celebrating each nation's culture or food.

"We're sprucing up the International Center to make it more functional for activities and make it look and feel more international," he said.

For more information, contact Dr. Larry Caillouet at (270) 745-7002. More WKU news is available on the World Wide Web at www.wku.edu. If you'd like to receive WKU news via E-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.