Worldwide welcome
International recruiting efforts are expected
to pay long-term dividends

New faces, from places all over the world, keep coming through the UTA front door. And, with continuing international recruitment efforts, University administrators will keep the welcome mat on the doorstep.

Since the first official international recruitment trip in fall 1999, UTA representatives have visited countries throughout Asia and the Middle East, including Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan and Turkey. At each stop, they participated with other U.S. colleges and universities in large college fairs that attracted thousands of potential UTA students.

International Office Director Judy Young and retired University administrator Elwood Preiss have done most of the recruiting travel. “You go to the fair, hang up your signs, put out your brochures and start talking to people,” Preiss said. “I don’t think there’s any question that it’s beneficial. We make literally thousands of contacts on every trip.”

Already the recruitment efforts are bringing results. “Graduate international enrollment is where the University is experiencing the largest increase right now,” Preiss said. “And at most fairs, the number of graduate student prospects is greater than the undergraduates.”

But, Dr. Young added, it’s a long process. “When we decided to do this, others who have done it for many years said, ‘Don’t expect quantifiable results for two to three years.’ Often students will come to the fairs two or three times before they get to the United States. “I do know that once an institution becomes known as welcoming and open to international students, the enrollment begins to grow.”

International students—from more than 100 countries—compose around 10 percent of the UTA student body. Dr. Young finds Asia a particularly good market because of the qualified students and readily available resources to support students studying abroad.
“But we don’t want to be heavily dependent on students from only one part of the world,” she said. So efforts are expanding into the Middle East, and recruiters are also exploring possibilities in Latin America.

In addition to attending recruitment fairs, UTA representatives also meet with alumni groups during their travels and work to develop relationships with international universities. Two schools in Malaysia—INTI College of Malaysia and Sepang Institute of Technology—offer two-year programs in engineering and business. Agreements between UTA and the Malaysian institutions allow students, after completing those programs, to transfer to UTA and finish their bachelor’s degrees.

UTA alumni play a large role in international recruitment, Dr. Young said, noting that the University has active alumni chapters in Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.

In the Middle East, UTA recently established a relationship with Hashemite University in Amman, Jordan.“The president of that school is looking to upgrade his faculty,” Dr. Young said. “So he will send them here for Ph.D. studies. All kinds of relationships like these are possible, and they all bring new students to Arlington.”

Dr. Young encourages Americans to keep the flow of students going both ways. “All of our agreements offer opportunities for our American students to study abroad as well,” she said.

– SWN