One of the dirty little secrets of American higher education is the growing financial dependence of many campuses on vast sums of tuition money paid by foreign students. With the cohort of Americans reaching college age declining, and with tuition having grown at a rate of three times inflation for decades, pricing out many families, colleges and universities need warm bodies with ample cash to pay for all those administrators. Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit calls this the “higher education bubble,” which threatens the financial viability of a huge swath of campuses.
Overseas students, who usually pay full tuition, not discounted with scholarships or, with public colleges, in-state tuition that is as little as one quarter or less of the amount paid by foreigners, have stepped up to fill the coffers at many institutions of higher education. The needs are mutual: foreigners want a visa to stay here for years, and colleges and universities need the money they bring. To use business jargon, overseas students are a “cash cow” for campuses all over the U.S.
And the biggest source of rich students wanting a visa to enter the USA currently is China, with millions of families now multi-millionaires, anxious to establish an offspring as a legal resident of a country like the U.S., Canada, or Australia, where pollution, corruption, and tyranny are not as odious as at home. Once a foothold is established, they can maneuver to obtain longer-term residency and maybe bring over family members, too.
Read the full story from American Thinker
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