Indiana State University Newsroom

International student enrollment at Indiana State University has grown by more than 13 percent from last year and stands at 539, an increase of 64 students from fall 2009 and the highest number in six years.

Graduate students have long been attracted to Indiana State to pursue advanced degrees, but the greatest growth in recent years has come at the undergraduate level. The 252 undergraduate international students enrolled at Indiana State represent a 70 percent increase from 2005.

"Continued growth of our international student population represents a significant step toward further globalizing the ISU campus. This trend benefits not only campus constituencies but the Terre Haute community as a whole," said Jacques Fuqua, director of the Office of International Programs and Services.

"The cultural richness these students bring with them provides important opportunities for ISU faculty, staff and students to increase their multicultural competencies, an indispensable tool, as past boundaries that have traditionally separated nations and people continue to diminish,"

While it remains open to strategic partnerships elsewhere, Indiana State is focusing its international efforts in China, Thailand and Morocco, Fuqua said.

Cunningham Memorial Library is working with a partner university in Morocco to increase library technology and management systems; the ISU Foundation is establishing its first international alumni club in Thailand; and the university has established several dual degree program agreements with China's Liaoning Normal University, which has four students at ISU this fall.

Students from more than 60 countries on all six permanently inhabited continents attend Indiana State.

Saudi Arabia has the most students this fall with 136, followed by India with 92, South Korea with 59, Taiwan with 56 and China with 42. Rounding out the top 10 are Canada with 14 students, Japan and Morocco with 12 each, and Qatar and United Arab Emirates with 11 each.

Photo: http://isuphoto.smugmug.com/Events/Homecoming-2009/Homecoming-Parade/DSC8264Parade/702359195_CgfVJ-L.jpg - International students take part in Indiana State University's 2009 Homecoming Parade. (ISU/Gurinder Singh)

Contact: Jacques Fuqua, director of International Programs and Services, Indiana State University, 812-237-4391 or Jacques.fuqua@indstate.edu

Writer: Dave Taylor, media relations director, Office of Communications and Marketing, Indiana State University, 812-237-3743 or dave.taylor@indstate.edu