International Student Numbers in US Recover

International Student Numbers in US Recover

美国的国际学生人数恢复

【原文听力】

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　　By Dan Friedell

　　18 November 2023

　　A recent report shows that the number of international students studying in the United States has returned to pre-pandemic levels.

　　Over 1 million international students attended American colleges and universities in the 2022-2023 school year. Last year's numbers nearly reached the record of 2018.

　　There are fewer Chinese students, but the largest-ever number of students from India made up the difference. Almost 269,000 Indian students came to study in the U.S. during the 2022-2023 school year.

　　The number of Chinese students dropped to 290,000 -- about 90,000 fewer than before the COVID-19 pandemic.

　　Many university leaders are celebrating the growth in students. Costas Chassapis is one of them. He is the Senior Vice Provost for Graduate Education at Stevens Institute of Technology in the city of Hoboken, New Jersey.

　　Chassapis said many university administrators are "euphoric" over the growth of students from India. But he warned that it will not last forever.

　　"The idea that these applications will keep on going up, I have a concern about. That's the euphoria. But I don't have a concern about the continued reasonable increase."

　　Experts say the increase is partly the result of changes made last year by President Joe Biden's administration to permit more students to qualify for work after graduating.

　　Biden's government increased the number of study programs that qualify for what is known as STEM OPT. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math. OPT is optional practical training. Students who complete a study program at an American university can stay in the U.S. and work for one year while on their student visa. However, STEM students are permitted to stay in the U.S. for two extra years of OPT.

　　Three years of OPT, Chassapis said, "makes them highly qualified working professionas by the time they are done."

　　A report from the U.S. State Department and the nonprofit Institute of International Education showed that many students came to the U.S. for math and computer science graduate programs.

　　Those two subjects saw a 20 percent increase compared to 2021-2022. More than half of all international students in the U.S. are working on degrees in math, science, engineering or business.

　　Chassapis said international students like Stevens because of its STEM study programs and its location – across the Hudson River from New York City. He added that well over 90 percent of the school's STEM graduates find work in their field.

　　A reduction in American students

　　The increase in international students comes as the number of American students attending college has dropped. A study from the National Student Clearinghouse noted the number of first-year American students decreased by 3.6 percent this year.

　　In search of a different cultural experience

　　Twenty-nine-year-old Dhruva Rathod of India is a working on a graduate degree in human-computer interaction at DePaul University in Chicago.

　　Rathod said he is in a group studying how to make digital, three-dimensional images called holograms more interactive with humans.

　　Rathod is from Hyderabad in southern India. He said he came to the United States because India only has space for 50 students each year in the same kind of study program. In the U.S., he estimated, there are 300 to 400 openings for graduate students.

　　Rathod said he considered trying to go to school in the U.S. as long ago as 2015, but he had to give up on the idea because it was too costly. He had degrees in mechanical engineering and industrial design. But he added: "in the back of my mind there was always an option that I should be going for a program abroad in the U.S. or Europe."

　　Rathod said he not only wanted to get into a high-quality study program, but he was looking for a "different cultural experience." He wanted to interact with people from all over the world while in the U.S.

　　It took him about two years to pass tests, send applications, be accepted, and receive a study permit, or visa.

　　Once he arrived in Chicago, he said he was happy with the mix of people. The only thing he does not like is the cold winter weather. "The state I come from," he said, "is kind of tropical and has sunny and warm weather."

　　If he stays in the U.S. after his study program, he will look for work in warmer places like California or Texas. But he considers his experience in Chicago as "an experiment with life."

　　International students make up 5.6 percent of U.S. college students. University leaders say they support the kind of "cultural experience" Rathod talked about.

　　In addition, many international students pay the full cost of college, which, universities say, lowers the cost of college for American students.

　　Rathod said it costs over $31,000 for each year of school at DePaul, including his living expenses. That is after about $6,000 in financial aid.

　　Chassapis in New Jersey said he knows the cost of attending school in the U.S. is a concern for international students. The number of applications to Stevens, though, keeps going up. In 2017, there were 7,000 graduate applications and last year the number was over 15,000.

　　Chassapis said pent-up demand is one reason for the increase last year. He noted that some countries, such as Australia, did not re-open for international students as quickly as the U.S. He called the increase "inflation" that will moderate soon.

　　But Stevens is working to remain popular. The school wants to make itself known in places like Indonesia and Vietnam.

　　It is a way "of minimizing the risk of depending on one country, which would be India," Chassapis said.

　　Vietnam sends the fifth-most students to the U.S., with nearly 22,000. Indonesia sends about 8,000.

　　I'm Dan Friedell. And I'm Dorothy Gundy.

　　Dan Friedell wrote this story for Learning English with additional reporting from The Associated Press.

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　　由丹·弗里德尔撰写

　　2023年11月18日

　　一份最近的报告显示，在美国学习的国际学生人数已经恢复到疫情前的水平。

　　在2022-2023学年，超过一百万的国际学生在美国的大学就读。去年的数字几乎达到了2018年的记录。

　　中国学生的数量有所减少，但是来自印度的学生数量创下了历史新高，弥补了这一差距。在2022-2023学年，近269,000名印度学生来美国学习。

　　中国学生的数量下降到290,000人，比COVID-19大流行之前少了大约90,000人。

　　许多大学领导人都在庆祝学生数量的增长。科斯塔斯·查萨皮斯就是其中之一。他是新泽西州霍博肯市史蒂文斯理工学院的研究生教育高级副校长。

　　查萨皮斯表示，许多大学管理员对来自印度的学生数量的增长感到“欣喜若狂”。但他警告说，这种情况不会永远持续下去。

　　“我对这些申请人数会持续增长的想法有所担忧。这就是欣喜。但我对持续适度增长并无担忧。”

　　专家们表示，这种增长部分是由于去年乔·拜登总统的政府做出的改变，允许更多的学生在毕业后有资格工作。

　　拜登政府增加了符合STEM OPT资格的学习项目的数量。STEM代表科学、技术、工程和数学。OPT是可选的实践培训。在美国大学完成学习项目的学生可以在学生签证下在美国停留并工作一年。然而，STEM学生被允许在美国额外停留两年进行OPT。

　　查萨皮斯表示，三年的OPT，“使他们在完成学业时成为高度合格的工作专业人士。”

　　美国国务院和非营利性的国际教育学会的一份报告显示，许多学生来美国攻读数学和计算机科学研究生课程。

　　这两个科目的增长率比2021-2022年增长了20%。在美国的所有国际学生中，超过一半正在攻读数学、科学、工程或商业学位。

　　查萨皮斯表示，国际学生喜欢史蒂文斯，因为它的STEM学习项目和它的位置——在纽约市对面的哈德逊河。他补充说，学校的STEM毕业生中，超过90%的人在他们的领域找到了工作。

　　美国学生的减少.

　　在美国学生上大学的数量下降的同时，国际学生的数量却在增加。国家学生清算所的一项研究指出，今年美国一年级学生的数量减少了3.6%。

　　寻求不同的文化体验。

　　来自印度的29岁的德鲁瓦·拉托德正在芝加哥的德保罗大学攻读人机交互的研究生学位。

　　拉托德表示，他正在一个小组中研究如何使数字化的三维图像，即全息图，与人类的交互更加互动。

　　拉托德来自印度南部的海德拉巴。他说他来美国是因为印度每年在同样的学习项目中只有50个名额。在美国，他估计，有300到400个研究生的名额。

　　拉托德说，他早在2015年就考虑过尝试去美国上学，但由于费用过高，他不得不放弃这个想法。他拥有机械工程和工业设计的学位。但他补充说：“在我心底里，我总是有一个选项，那就是我应该去美国或欧洲的一个海外项目学习。”

　　拉托德说，他不仅想进入一个高质量的学习项目，而且他正在寻找一个“不同的文化体验”。他希望在美国的时候能与来自世界各地的人交流。

　　他花了大约两年的时间通过考试，发送申请，被接受，并获得学习许可证，或者说是签证。

　　一旦他到达芝加哥，他说他对人们的混合感到满意。他唯一不喜欢的就是寒冷的冬天。他说：“我来自的州，是热带的，有阳光和温暖的天气。”

　　如果他在学习项目结束后留在美国，他将在像加利福尼亚或德克萨斯这样的温暖地方寻找工作。但他认为他在芝加哥的经历是“对生活的一次尝试”。

　　国际学生占美国大学生的5.6%。大学领导者们表示，他们支持拉托德谈到的这种“文化体验”。

　　此外，许多国际学生支付全额的大学费用，这，大学表示，降低了美国学生的大学费用。

　　拉托德说，在德保罗每年的学费包括他的生活费用超过31,000美元。这是在获得大约6,000美元的财务援助后的费用。

　　新泽西的查萨皮斯表示，他知道在美国上学的费用是国际学生关心的问题。然而，申请史蒂文斯的人数一直在增加。2017年，有7,000份研究生申请，去年这个数字超过了15,000。

　　查萨皮斯说，积压的需求是去年增加的一个原因。他指出，一些国家，如澳大利亚，没有像美国那样快速地对国际学生重新开放。他称这种增加为"通胀"，这将很快得到缓解。

　　但是史蒂文斯正在努力保持其受欢迎度。学校希望在印度尼西亚和越南等地方知名。

　　查萨皮斯说，这是一种“降低依赖一个国家的风险，那就是印度”的方式。

　　越南向美国发送的学生数量排名第五，近22,000人。印度尼西亚发送约8,000人。

　　我是丹·弗里德尔。我是多萝西·冈迪。

　　丹·弗里德尔为学习英语撰写了这篇报道，报道中还包含了来自美联社的额外报道。

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　　这个故事中的词汇

　　euphoric –adj. 非常快乐的

　　application –n.申请，是寻求被学校、学院或项目等机构接受的过程的一部分

　　graduate –v. 毕业，完成学校或学院的学习课程

　　abroad –adv. 在外国或去外国

　　pent-up –adj. 被压抑的，未得到释放的

　　moderate –v. 回归到更正常或平均的状态

　　minimize –v. 减少；尽可能使某物变小或尽可能小