Статистические данные, которые приводятся в цитируемой статье Reuters, кроме прочего по-видимому поясняют - пусть и с некоторым опозданием - кто был прав в состоявшейся ровно по этому самому предмету в 1999 году летом на конфе политру дискуссии: является ли весомо полезным, в том числе и в экономическом отношении, для американской системы высшего образования - разумеется не только для ней, но сузим по началу предмет обсуждения - обучение иностранных студентов ? По этому поводу мне тогда энергично возражал участник с ником ПЗ ("патриот заграницы").
Желающиме могут глянуть на ту дискуссию здесь. Это начало - затравка разговору - а далее по ленте сообщений того диалога (мой в том форуме ник был, напоминаю - Out).
US Loses Foreign Students to Post-9/11 Competition
Thu Mar 24, 1:26 PM ET - U.S. National - Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Buoyed by tough U.S. visa policies after Sept. 11, countries from Europe to Asia are eating into the United States' multibillion dollar business of educating foreign students, academics and officials said on Thursday.
More than 570,000 foreigners study in the United States, earning the U.S. economy about $13 billion a year, but the numbers are in decline.
"Matriculations of foreign students are still down. And meanwhile, other English-speaking countries are actively recruiting students who in other times and under different circumstances would have come to the United States to study," said George Washington University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg.
"Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom are doing a very good job of snaring students we should have had. And believe me, they would like to eat our lunch," he told a Washington International Trade Association (WITA) meeting.
According to the Institute of International Education, foreign enrollment fell 2.4 percent in the last academic year -- the first decline in more than three decades -- compared to an increase of 6.4 percent in the year before the 2001 attacks.
The Council of Graduate Schools reported earlier this month that despite significant U.S. government efforts to encourage foreign students to study in the United States, foreign graduate student applications fell 5 percent from 2004 to 2005 following a 28 percent drop the previous year.
The Council said that while the decline had slowed, the figures showed international interest in graduate study in the United States was not rebounding, due partly to competition from other countries eager to attract international students.
"From our higher education sector, we have taken note of some very disturbing developments and trends," Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce Doug Baker told the WITA meeting.
"If citizens of our trading partners cannot travel to the United States to conduct business, to get a world-class education, receive state-of-the-art medical attention or just visit ..., we are jeopardizing our economic health, not to mention harming our diplomatic efforts," Baker said.
The United States has traditionally been a magnet for international students, but the attraction has waned since Sept. 11, due to a combination of factors including visa restrictions, a perceived discrimination against foreigners and a rising antipathy toward U.S. policies.
Educators and officials lament that the trend could chisel away at the pro-U.S. sentiment that many returning students carry home with them, undermining U.S. political, economic and security interests.
Vic Johnson, a senior official at the Association of International Educators, said substantial government efforts to streamline the visa process were not enough to reverse the trend.
"The State Department's mistake ... is to think that fixing the visa problem is all we have to do, because it isn't. You can't get a market back just by fixing the problem that drove it away," he told the WITA meeting.
"We need to win back the loyalty of our customers in the international student market who have decided that the United States ... is not necessarily their preferred destination anymore," Johnson said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1896&ncid=1896&e=2&u=/nm/20050324/us_nm/security_education_dc