Renee Ballenger
Editor
The international student body at UNK is an extremely important part of the institution as a whole, and in terms of enrollment and diversity, too. Our enthusiastic and passionate engagement in international education and partnerships has positioned UNK as a benchmarker, on campus, throughout the state and on foreign soil. One such instance of newideas- gone-successful is the recent incorporation of a tuition remission stimulus to international student enrollment.
This program facilitates more cohorts of students, associated with particular international educational institutions, governmental agencies and higher education-related agencies, to attend UNK.
How it works, basically, is these particular cohorts are offered a tuition rate that is 50 percent above the in-state rate. Initiated just this semester, three cohort programs are already established.
The first is with the Colombian National Police association and family members. UNK has a longstanding relationship with the CNP and CNP families. More officers, and more of their children, want to attend UNK, but lack the funds to do so. But now, this international tuition remission program, specifically, will help more of these earnest prospective students to fulfill their educational desires.
Jerry Fox, UNK’s Director of International Education, reports, “We anticipate 15 new students from Colombia in the next year.” Fox just returned from a visit to Colombia mid-November at which he spent time with the members of the CNP and admirals within the Ministry of Defense. Fox says it is exciting what is developing out of those meetings—namely, a broadened Colombian police-UNK faculty exchange program and an education relationship with the Colombian military.
The second cohort already taking advantage of UNK’s international tuition remission program consists of students matriculating from Hannam University of Daejeon, Korea. HU has shared with UNK its desire to send its students to UNK for their American education, but they’ve also revealed the challenge in convincing their students that UNK should be their American institution of choice. HU, along with Shandong University at Weihai, China, and UNK have designed a unique trilateral program for select HU students to study two years at HU; then two years as SDUW to develop their language skills in Mandarin while completing n undergraduate degree; and then transferring to UNK to complete a master’s degree while improving their English. Although it will be a rotation of two years before any HU students are on the UNK campus, this tuition remission program has offered the kind of incentive attractive to more HU students choosing UNK.
Most recently, UNK has partnered with KyungHee and ChungAng Universities of Seoul, Korea, to better accommodate the needs of their students who choose to obtain their American education at our institution. Already this semester, 60 students are on our campus as a result of this tuition remission program. “Fourteen more students are expected to join us this Spring semester,” Fox says. “We should see impact on enrollment from these cohorts each semester. “
Senior Vice Chancellor Murray concludes, “This tuition remission idea, tailored to the particular needs of our international students, is a wonderful example of partnership, collaboration and accommodating nature in doing not only what we can, but what is right, to bring a quality American education experience to our international friends on our campus.”
As part of UNK’s commitment to the diversity development of our faculty, staff and students, a new summer teaching-and-learning exchange-type of program has been established with Shandong Universityof Weihai, China, and applications are being accepted now from UNK full-time faculty who are interested in taking part in an exciting, advanced foreign exchange arrangement, informally referred to as 1-2-1.
The program breaks down to Chinese students attending their first year of undergraduate work in China, their next two years at UNK, and their fourth year back home in China. Our faculty’s role would include, initially, about 10 days this summer in China, learning about the country, the language, the culture and meeting Chinese students and faculty. America has a 1-2-1 agreement with more than 20 Chinese universities.
The Office of International Education in Ockinga Center is currently accepting applications for this Faculty/Staff Development opportunity in China. The travel dates for this summer are July 2-13.
“We now have faculty who have visited Shandong and intend to return there to teach,” Senior Vice Chancellor Murray states. “Moreover, they plan to take some of our students with them to broaden their learning experience.”
