by NORTHWESTERN NEWS
Northwestern may have avoided the dreaded furloughs and layoffs of employees following the 16.4% cut to state appropriations, but they were unsuccessful in keeping the tuition and fees from increasing for the students.
Although all students suffered from the 9.8% increase in tuition, one group that was hit the hardest was the international students.
According to Rebecca Cook, the international student advisor for Northwestern, 151 international students attend the university. Of that total, 82 students just arrived this semester.
For international students, the process to apply to a university in the states requires a lot of documents and effort, according to a blog post by Jenny Frankel, director of financial services at Envisage International.
For example, in the blog post, Frankel said individuals who are interested in studying in the United States first need to go through the standard college application process after researching the correct college or university to attend.
Then after that is completed, the school in which the student is accepted sends an official document, an I-20 form, that say’s he or she applying for college has been accepted and the dates for when they should arrive and when classes start.
Following that, the students then have to apply for a student visa, and that means the students have even more paperwork for them to fill out and/or provide.
After completing that process, and receiving their student visa, the international students are then set to attend classes in the states, but that is of course if the tuition and fees don’t increase beyond a reasonable amount.
“If the amount of tuition and fees changes from the amount we originally put on their I-20, then sometimes, it’s actually more difficult to get money here to pay the bills,” Cook said. “Sometimes the international student’s countries will only allow them to bring that specific amount on the sheet.”
If the amount does increase, Cook said the students get caught in a tight spot, especially since they are confined to work only on-campus jobs, and with the budget cut, the amount of on campus jobs were reduced as well, so the spot that the students get caught in becomes that much tighter.
Currently, the amount of out of state tuition and fees stands at $441.25 per credit hour, according to Dr. David Pecha, Northwestern vice president for administration, and he fears that the cuts to higher education will not stop at the 16.4% in fiscal year 2017.
“I am not real optimistic that the end is here for the state cuts, so I will just have to take it month by month and see where we end up at the end of it all,” Pecha said.
If that amount increases anymore, junior nursing major from South Korea, Jesse Cho said, he would consider transferring to “a cheaper school with the same, or better, quality of education.”
Cho also said in order to pay for his education, he is having to cut down on a lot of extra expenditures.
When it comes to retaining the new 82 international students, a problem that the university has had for several years, Cook said she hopes to have at least half of the students return for not just the spring semester, but for years to come as well.
With the fear of more reductions to state funding, and possible tuition increases in the future, looming, it might be safe to say, international students will continue to take a hit based off of what has been seen already.