Enrollment on the Athens campus peaked at 1,569 undergraduate and graduate international students fall quarter 1982 and has gradually declined to 1,042 enrolling winter quarter 1996, according to the Office of Institutional Research. Ohio University is among 105 universities in the country that enrolls more than 1,000 international students a year. About two-thirds of international students at Ohio University are graduate students. They bring their culture, experience and values with them and students learn a lot from them. President Robert Glidden said the decline in the number of international students at Ohio University is rooted in national trends.
Cost is also a factor.
As costs for college education in the United States have risen, the ability of people in many less developed nations to meet those costs has not increased. More selective admission standards also accounts for the decline, according to Jerry Reese, associate director of admissions who reviews applications from foreign nations. About two-thirds of international students applying to Ohio University are admitted. Over the past three years, about 21 percent of those admitted actually enrolled. Ohio University's Ohio Program of Intensive English, long a pioneer in teaching English to foreign students prior to their beginning other academic work, was an important element in attracting international students in the 1970s and 1980s.