OT: Beware students
Aug 25th 2003, 1:47 pm
#1
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OT: Beware students
Here is an article on the US immigration policy towards students from the Economist.
Please note I have posted the entire article here as a subscription is required to access the Economist website.
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Immigration policy
Beware students
Aug 21st 2003 | CHICAGO
From The Economist print edition
The latest victims of America's paranoia are those who want to learn
AS CLASSES began at many universities, colleges and schools across America this week, more than a few seats remained empty. Foreign students are facing unprecedented delays and, in some cases, rejections from the American government, as visa applications get closer scrutiny than ever.
Nearly 583,000 foreigners were enrolled in American universities and colleges last year. The Institute of International Education (IIE) estimates they contributed about $12 billion to the economy. Many, but not all, require visas to study in America. But from August 1st, virtually all foreigners applying for first-time student visas—except the old, and young children going back to boarding school—have been required to have personal interviews with an American consular officer abroad. In some countries, waits for interviews at American embassies and consulates have stretched to five weeks or more.
From August 1st, too, all universities, colleges and schools that admit foreign students have been required to enter data on them in a national computer database called SEVIS. This system, managed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is meant to track students while they are in America. More than 1m students are now in the database, representing about 7,000 schools across the country. But the work is only beginning. Updates on new arrivals, as well as changes of address, changes of courses taken, and other details, must be reported via SEVIS within 30 days of the start of every term.
Colleges of all sizes have been scrambling to meet the deadline. Both Harvard and the Illinois Institute of Technology, which take many foreign students, hired extra staff and diverted others to put data into the system. Others could not afford the extra hands. Northern Virginia Community College, a two-year college that enrolled over 9,500 international students last year (about half of them permanent residents), closed its international office to inquiries for two hours a day over ten weeks this summer to put data into SEVIS.
“This is a huge unfunded mandate� from the government, says Allan Goodman, head of the IIE. He reckons many schools have spent $50,000-500,000 already to comply with it. His own institute, which hosts academic visitors sponsored by the State Department, has spent $200,000 so far. More than 600 other schools—mostly small private, trade or religious ones—are awaiting government certification to use SEVIS, which takes 60-90 days to get. While they wait, foreign students who plan to attend those schools have been delayed at American ports of entry because they are not in the system.
Meanwhile, American consular officials abroad are getting ever pickier. Visa-rejection rates for foreigners who wish to study in America have jumped since the attacks of September 2001, even though applications have fallen. Rejections have also risen for foreign academics invited to work on American campuses. Officials fear not only that these teachers and students may threaten security, but that they may never go home.
Arab and Muslim students have been particularly hard-hit. Not surprisingly, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan and Libya saw the number of student visas issued to them fall by 60% or more in the fiscal year that followed September 2001. In the current fiscal year, the fall has continued. But Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, officially friends of America, also saw their student visas drop by 65% and 60% in fiscal 2002, with another apparent drop this year.
Foreign students are not the only focus of the government's scrutiny. Universities, colleges and schools are also under the microscope. Since the 1980s, more than 77,000 educational institutions in America—teaching subjects from cooking to car maintenance—have accepted at least one foreign student. That means about 70,000 are not yet part of SEVIS. The DHS is conducting site visits, and has found that more than a few of these “schools� are actually post-office boxes.
Please note I have posted the entire article here as a subscription is required to access the Economist website.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Immigration policy
Beware students
Aug 21st 2003 | CHICAGO
From The Economist print edition
The latest victims of America's paranoia are those who want to learn
AS CLASSES began at many universities, colleges and schools across America this week, more than a few seats remained empty. Foreign students are facing unprecedented delays and, in some cases, rejections from the American government, as visa applications get closer scrutiny than ever.
Nearly 583,000 foreigners were enrolled in American universities and colleges last year. The Institute of International Education (IIE) estimates they contributed about $12 billion to the economy. Many, but not all, require visas to study in America. But from August 1st, virtually all foreigners applying for first-time student visas—except the old, and young children going back to boarding school—have been required to have personal interviews with an American consular officer abroad. In some countries, waits for interviews at American embassies and consulates have stretched to five weeks or more.
From August 1st, too, all universities, colleges and schools that admit foreign students have been required to enter data on them in a national computer database called SEVIS. This system, managed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is meant to track students while they are in America. More than 1m students are now in the database, representing about 7,000 schools across the country. But the work is only beginning. Updates on new arrivals, as well as changes of address, changes of courses taken, and other details, must be reported via SEVIS within 30 days of the start of every term.
Colleges of all sizes have been scrambling to meet the deadline. Both Harvard and the Illinois Institute of Technology, which take many foreign students, hired extra staff and diverted others to put data into the system. Others could not afford the extra hands. Northern Virginia Community College, a two-year college that enrolled over 9,500 international students last year (about half of them permanent residents), closed its international office to inquiries for two hours a day over ten weeks this summer to put data into SEVIS.
“This is a huge unfunded mandate� from the government, says Allan Goodman, head of the IIE. He reckons many schools have spent $50,000-500,000 already to comply with it. His own institute, which hosts academic visitors sponsored by the State Department, has spent $200,000 so far. More than 600 other schools—mostly small private, trade or religious ones—are awaiting government certification to use SEVIS, which takes 60-90 days to get. While they wait, foreign students who plan to attend those schools have been delayed at American ports of entry because they are not in the system.
Meanwhile, American consular officials abroad are getting ever pickier. Visa-rejection rates for foreigners who wish to study in America have jumped since the attacks of September 2001, even though applications have fallen. Rejections have also risen for foreign academics invited to work on American campuses. Officials fear not only that these teachers and students may threaten security, but that they may never go home.
Arab and Muslim students have been particularly hard-hit. Not surprisingly, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan and Libya saw the number of student visas issued to them fall by 60% or more in the fiscal year that followed September 2001. In the current fiscal year, the fall has continued. But Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, officially friends of America, also saw their student visas drop by 65% and 60% in fiscal 2002, with another apparent drop this year.
Foreign students are not the only focus of the government's scrutiny. Universities, colleges and schools are also under the microscope. Since the 1980s, more than 77,000 educational institutions in America—teaching subjects from cooking to car maintenance—have accepted at least one foreign student. That means about 70,000 are not yet part of SEVIS. The DHS is conducting site visits, and has found that more than a few of these “schools� are actually post-office boxes.
Aug 26th 2003, 2:01 am
#2
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: OT: Beware students
On Mon, 25 Aug 2003 13:47:52 +0000, Peter Newton wrote:
>
> Here is an article on the US immigration policy towards students from
> the Economist.
>
Yeah, studying in the US sucks big these days -- tuition is skyrocketing,
johnny ashcroft keeps coming up with new interesting ideas, etc. So if you
want to study abroad, go to Australia, Europe, or Canada and forget about
USA.
>
> Here is an article on the US immigration policy towards students from
> the Economist.
>
Yeah, studying in the US sucks big these days -- tuition is skyrocketing,
johnny ashcroft keeps coming up with new interesting ideas, etc. So if you
want to study abroad, go to Australia, Europe, or Canada and forget about
USA.
