中国学生激增推动赴美留学生总数破记录

Staff from Northern State University have traveled to China, South Korea, Vietnam, India and Europe in recent years to help the South Dakota school grab a slice of an increasingly lucrative market: foreign students.

美国北方州立大学(Northern State University)的教职工近年来曾到过中国、韩国、越南、印度和欧洲等地，帮助位于南达科他州的这所大学从一个越来越有利可图的市场抢得一点份额。这个市场就是：外国留学生。

'We're just working to have students aware of our small university,' said James Smith, the school's president.

该校校长史密斯(James Smith)说：我们正努力让学生们知道我们这所规模不大的大学。

Such efforts appear to be paying off. The number of International students in the U.S. rose to a record last year, fueled by a significant rise of undergraduates from China.

此类努力似乎正在带来回报。在来自中国的本科生数量大幅上升的推动下，美国的国际学生数量去年升至有史以来最高水平。

In the school year ended in May, 819,644 foreign students studied in the U.S., up 7.2% from the previous year, according to an annual report released Monday by the Institute of International Education, a nonprofit organization.

根据非营利组织国际教育协会(Institute of International Education)周一发布的年度报告，在截至今年5月的学年，有819,644名外国学生在美国学习，较前一年上升7.2%。

The number, which includes undergraduate and graduate students, represents the seventh increase in a row and the steepest rise in four years.

这一数字既包括本科生也包括研究生，这已经是这一数字连续第七年增长，也是四年来最快的增长速度。

Foreign students account for 3.9% of the overall student population, according to the education nonprofit.

据国际教育协会的数据，外国学生占学生总数的3.9%。

The proliferation reflects continued aggressive recruiting by U.S. schools, which see full-pay foreign students as cash cows at a time of decreasing public subsidies, flattening tuitions and a falling number of U.S. high-school seniors. About two-thirds of international students in the U.S. pay their own way, and most aren't eligible for U.S. government aid programs.

外国学生数量激增表明，美国学校继续执行积极的招生政策。在公共补贴减少、学费持平、美国高中毕业生数量减少之际，它们把全自费外国学生当作现金来源。在美国的国际学生有大约三分之二全部自费，而且大多数人都没有资格参加美国政府补助项目。

International students pump an estimated $24 billion into the U.S. economy, but the bounty isn't evenly distributed. Nearly 70% of the students are concentrated in about 200 schools, said Allan E. Goodman, the nonprofit's president and chief executive. 'We do have 4,000 accredited colleges,' he said. We have 'room to expand.'

国际学生为美国经济注入了大约240亿美元的资金，但这些钱并不是均匀分布的。国际教育协会主席兼首席执行长古德曼(Allan E. Goodman)说，将近70%的学生集中在大约200所学校里。他说：我们有4,000所合资格的学校，我们还有拓展空间。

Of the top 25 schools, which attract 21% of foreign students, 18 are public universities.

在排名最靠前的25所学校当中，18所是公立大学。这25所大学吸引了21%的外国学生。

The top four -- the University of Southern California, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Purdue University and New York University -- each drew more than 9,000 foreign students.

排名最靠前的四所学校分别是南加州大学(University of Southern California)、伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)、普渡大学(Purdue University)和纽约大学( New York University)，每所大学都吸引了超过9,000名外国学生。

The states of Massachusetts, Indiana and Pennsylvania saw some of the fastest growth, said Rajika Bhandari, the nonprofit's deputy vice president for research and evaluation. Driving that expansion are marketing organizations created by several statewide consortia of schools designed to sell themselves to international students.

国际教育协会负责研究和评估的副主席班达里(Rajika Bhandari)说，马萨诸塞、印第安纳和宾夕法尼亚等州的增速最快。促进这种扩张的，是一些州内学校联合体创设的营销组织，其目的就是要向国际学生推销自己。

At Northern State in Aberdeen, S.D., foreign students pay the out-of-state rate of more than $15,000 a year for tuition, room and board, plus an international-student fee of about $100 a semester. The school has consistently hosted about 200 international students sprinkled among its 3,300-student body.

在南达科他州阿伯丁(Aberdeen)的北方州立大学，外国学生每年要交15,000美元的学费和食宿费，这是面向州外学生的收费标准。另外，外国学生每一学期还要交大约100美元的国际学生费。该学校的国际学生数量一直在200名左右，而该校的学生总数为3,300名。

To increase that number, the school has promoted free-application periods for students, Mr. Smith said. He added that international students add diversity to a mostly homogenous campus and that studying in the U.S. is 'a great educational opportunity for these students.'

史密斯说，为了增加国际学生的数量，该校为学生提供了免费申请时段。他还补充说，国际学生为该校大体而言由同一类学生组成的校园增加了多样性，在美国学习对这些学生来说是一个非常好的教育良机。

Chinese students in particular are a gold mine. Last year, there were 235,597 Chinese students in the U.S., including a 26% uptick in undergraduates, according to the report. There also were significant increases of students from Brazil and Saudi Arabia, driven by scholarship programs offered by those nations' governments.

中国学生更是一座金矿。这份报告说，去年，在美国学习的中国学生有235,597名，其中本科生的数量上涨了26%。来自巴西和沙特阿拉伯的学生的数量也大幅增加，因为这些国家的政府提供了奖学金项目。

India and South Korea, the second and third largest countries of origin for foreign students, both sent fewer students as the Indian economy stalled and South Koreans began to take advantage of study-abroad programs in China and other Asian countries, Ms. Bhandari said.

班达里说，印度和韩国分别是第二和第三大外国学生来源国，不过随着印度经济陷入停滞，以及韩国开始享受中国和其他亚洲国家的留学项目，来自这两个国家的学生数量减少。

According to a survey published last week, new foreign enrollment at U.S. graduate schools rose 10% to 71,418 students this fall. That was the strongest annual growth since 2006, according to the annual survey of 285 members of the Council of Graduate Schools.

据上周发布的一份研究报告显示，今年秋季，美国研究生院外国新生数量增长10%，达到71,418人。对美国研究生院委员会(Council of Graduate Schools)的285个成员进行的年度调查显示，这是2006年以来的最大年度增幅。

International students overwhelmingly gravitate toward business and the sciences. Nearly half of all Chinese students are studying either business or engineering. Indian students are more heavily concentrated in engineering, math and computer science.

国际学生主要选择的是商科和理科专业。差不多半数的中国学生不是学商科就是学工科。印度学生更倾向于学工科、数学和计算机科学。

U.S. students also continue to head overseas in growing numbers. During the 2011-12 academic year, 283,332 Americans traveled abroad to study, a 3% increase from a year earlier, according to the report. The top four destinations for American students were in Europe, with the U.K. topping the list, followed by Italy, Spain and France. The fifth most popular destination was China, with nearly 15,000 students heading there.

到国外去学习的美国学生数量也越来越多。这份报告显示，在2011-12学年，283,332名美国学生到国外留学，较前一年增长了3%。美国学生前往的四大目的地全部位于欧洲，排名最高的是英国，接下来是意大利、西班牙和法国。排在最受欢迎目的地第五名的是中国，有大约15,000名美国学生到中国学习。