From: kchittur@EBS330.EB.UAH.EDU (Krishnan Chittur(CHE))
Newsgroups: sci.engr
Subject: About Foreign Students Faculty..
Date: 8 Apr 92 14:51:17 GMT

On the subject of Foreign Students / Faculty  ....   

khafagi@frith.egr.msu.edu asks ...   
(FE ... stands for foreign students, faculty, ....) 

Before I post my reply, let me draw your attention to an article in
Science, Volume 236, page 33, titled "The impact of foreign graduate
students on engineering education in the U.S.' authored by 
Elinor Barber, and Robert Morgan.  

Their basic conclusion?  Foreign students are an asset and that without
them, training and research would suffer.

Take a look.  It makes interesting reading.  

Now here is MY opinion.  

* 1. Do you feel FE are assets or burden to the system

Assets ofcourse.   

As solman@athena.mit.edu (Jason W Solinsky)
points out ....  

<They bring an increased diversity of viewpoints ....   

Students attending colleges in the US which have foreign students are
some of the luckiest students anywhere.  I went to school at a very good
engineering schoolin India, but simply did not have the opportunity
to sample the diversity that  students here can do.  The relative
openness of US universities is perhaps our best "foreign policy"
initiative. 
 
|> * 2. Do you beleive they discourage women or minorities from the eng. profession

I do not see any connection between the presence of FE and the absence of
minorities, women in engineering schools.  But, I can understand how some
politicians can use this as an excuse to limit foreign student
enrollment.  
 
|> * 3. Do they have any impact on the Salaries (for Faculty or Engineers)

I do not think so.  I am ofcourse not privy to how salary decisions are
made, but I would shudder to think that if a candidate were "foreign"
he/she would somehow not command the same salary.   

|> * 4. How the system can benifit from their existence in the U.S.

Again, foreign student bring with them an enormous collection of divergent
experiences, attitudes, ideas.  Quality is independent of nationality,
good students from anywhere in general tend to raise the overall 
quality of the institutions.  If there are deliberate attempts to
put "quotas" on foreigners (or US born citizens of foreign born parents)
it will only serve to lower the schools's quality, ultimately.  Not to
mention such policies are despicable.   

Yes, there should also be no attempts to "deliberately" limit 
any particular groups enrollment; even if they are 
in the majority.  
 
|> * 5. For Students taught by Foreign Faculty or TA's, What is your feedback

As the science article says, sometimes language is a problem.  But then
again, it is also an attitude problem.  Some students are simply unwilling
to make the attempt to understand the instructor.  Some of the other
faculty could be openly hostile to TA's who have communication problems, they
could often be shunted aside so that "american" instructors can be
found.    

|> * 6. Do they need more admin. work (Burden)

Nothing more or nothing less.  Treat them like others.   
 
|> *** PLEASE, e-Mail your comments since I don't read this news group. THNX....

I have mailed the original requester a copy.  

Snail Mail: 			Voice Mail: 	E-Mail:  
Krishnan K. Chittur		(205) 895 6850	kchittur@cs.uah.edu  
Chemical Engineering Dept.			kchittur@ebs330.eb.uah.edu  
Univ. of Alabama in Huntsville			uahkxc01@uahvax1 (Bitnet) 
Huntsville, AL 35899