Global students thriving at the University of Cincinnati

Annual statistical reports published during International Education Week provide insight into the recovery of global student mobility since COVID-19 and the importance of international education to U.S. universities and to the US economy.

At UC, a new class of 1,543 for fall 2023 — just 4 students short of last fall’s record-smashing intake — has pushed international enrollment to 4,899 students, or 9.6% of the student population, according to figures reported to NCES/Department of Education.

It’s the highest number in UC’s history.

The annual Open Doors Report (the primary statistical source on international education in the U.S., from the nonprofit IIE and the US Department of State), published this Monday reports that international students in the United States for the past academic year once more topped the 1 million mark, though that is still below the pre-COVID peaks of 2015-2019.

The total of 1,057,188 students who came to the U.S. from 210 countries in 2022-23 was up 12% from 2021, the fastest growth rate in 40 years.

At UC, strong enrollments and retention of international students since the pandemic have put the university well ahead of its own pre-COVID records, with a growth of 20.1% for the 2022-23 academic year and another 17.2% this fall, per Open Doors. (See By the Numbers.)

According to Open Doors, UC ranked at No. 44 in the US for institutions hosting international students in 2022-23.

“If you want to be a top university in the United States you need to attract talented students from throughout the world,” Director for International Enrollment Jon Weller told UC News.

The University of Cincinnati’s status as a Carnegie-1 research university, its globally renowned programs, the pioneering co-op and experiential learning opportunities that are part of UC’s Next Lives Here promise to all students, and its award-winning campus and vibrant community have made UC a destination for international students.

UC’s global recruiters and advisers support those students from their initial college search through the visa application process to academic and social success in the U.S.

“Building a strong base of services to ensure success and retention while making sure our international students are engaged and having a positive experience is a big challenge, but our numbers would indicate that we are meeting those challenges effectively,” said Ron Cushing, director of the International Services division of the UC International office.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reported last month on one important trend in international education: the surge in students from India, which moved China out of the top spot as the country of international students in the U.S. this summer for the first time in 15 years.

In the 2022-23 Open Doors report year, China still edged out India nationally, at 27% to 25%, though the rapid (35%) growth in India's numbers for 2022-23 presaged this year's change.  

However, India has been the number one country of origin for the University of Cincinnati’s international students for 10 of the past 15 years, especially since 2016, so the trend is nothing new at UC.

More than half of UC’s international students came from India in fall 2023.

Another national trend identified in the Open Doors report is the continuing increase of graduate students coming to the U.S. Across the country, their numbers surpassed undergraduates in 2021-22 for the first time in a decade. In 2022-23, they rose another 21% to record numbers, led by students entering U.S. master's programs.

UC anticipated that trend as well. UC’s international students are predominantly graduate students: The ratio has been about 2:1 for many years. Of the top 10 countries sending international students to UC, only Vietnam sent more undergraduates than graduates this fall.

Mehran Piri is one of UC’s international graduate students, a doctoral student in civil engineering. Piri came to UC from Iran to work with John Ash in the College of Engineering & Applied Sciences.

“His area of expertise was very close to mine, transportation safety,” Piri said. He is currently working on crash data analysis, looking for ways to mine information from the open-text field on police crash report forms.

UC’s international students come from 133 countries, 85 in this year’s cohort alone.

“When I first started international recruitment, hardly anyone outside the U.S. had heard of the University of Cincinnati. Fifteen years later we have a strong brand name in Dubai, India, Vietnam and many other parts of the world. Students are coming to UC, being extremely successful academically, enjoying all that UC and Cincinnati have to offer, and continuing to be unofficial ambassadors after they graduate, too,” Weller said.

Prosper Tornyi, a new master's student from Ghana, is already one of those unofficial ambassadors and hopes his UC experience will help him toward his dream of government service in his home country.

Tornyi did his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering. For a service-learning requirement in the final year of his program, he did a teaching stint in northern Ghana that inspired him to use his engineering skills in the community. He founded a nonprofit organization to empower women to pursue STEM careers.

He first planned to enroll at UC in 2021 but lacked funding. He applied instead to be part of the first cohort of fellows in the Community Engagement Exchange, a global development and education leadership nonprofit sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. That brought him to the U.S. in 2022, where he ran a youth and technology program in Chicago.

Visiting friends at UC while in the Midwest, Tornyi saw President Pinto at an orientation event.

“I just saw him. There was a marching band, if I remember. After the performance, I walked up with one of my Ghanaian friends and said, ‘Hey, I want to speak with him, right? He's the president.’”

Tornyi introduced himself and told Pinto about his interest in the public administration master’s program in the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) in UC's College of Arts & Sciences. Pinto encouraged him to reapply. Tornyi is now in his first semester at UC, with a teaching assistantship in SPIA.

“The UC community is great," Tornyi said. "I love the fact that there is ongoing activity to help international students to integrate and take advantage of their professional and career paths.”

After Tornyi finishes his degree, with a possible focus on cyber policy, he hopes to find a job in a multinational company and then segue into public service.

UC provides strong support for all international students to succeed.

James Tenney is associate director of International Services, whose team within the UC International office helps students with complex immigration rules, taxes and other challenges of life in the U.S.

“We try to treat everyone who comes in with respect and compassion," Tenney said. "We understand that it is not easy coming here and navigating a completely different culture and trying to do the right thing, trying to follow the rules.

“These are hard-working students just trying to get a degree and figure out life while doing so, just like our American students. They are so far away from their parents and faced with any number of legal, cultural and language challenges. Some days they are stressed or confused by rules and classes or amazed by Americans and what they experience in Cincinnati. American culture is so different from what they saw on TV back home.”

Within the International Services division, a second team led by Lorri Blanton, assistant director for programs and events, provides social and academic support.

“The goal or mission of our team is to build a diverse community, and create spaces where international students feel safe, included, and heard,” said Blanton.

“We host classic American social experiences like the International Student Prom or our Country Pumpkins program and offer informational workshops, like one to teach students to drive and get their license. We offer chances to ‘study abroad in the USA’ in places like Mammoth Caves, New Orleans, D.C., and Texas.  

“Our IPALs group helps the students, especially new students, make friends and become part of our community.”

On the academic side, Kelly Plazibat, program coordinator for academic support, works with struggling students to help them find resources and resolutions for a variety of issues, as well as workshops on academic integrity and U.S. academic culture. International Services also offers intercultural competency workshops to assist UC staff and faculty.   

While graduate study in the U.S. tops the headlines, international undergraduates also flourish at UC.

Ou (Odin) Chin Hua came to UC as an undergraduate, a senior at his home university, Feng Chia University in Taiwan. Through an agreement with the College of Engineering & Applied Science, Feng Chia students can complete their bachelor’s degree with an exchange year at UC and then qualify for a UC master of engineering program. Chin Hua chose aerospace engineering.

“There are lots of international students, so besides local people, you can meet and get to know lots of other international students,” he said about UC. “People who have different backgrounds will communicate with each other, interact with each other, exchange different ideas [beyond] academics, because UC has lots of student organizations based on your interests.”

Chin Hua joined the UC Aerocats in his senior year. The group designed a piloted aircraft with an 18-foot wingspan and constructed four prototypes, component by component, in a “build room” in the Old Chem Building last spring and drove it to Fort Worth, Texas, for an international competition.

"I was actually the new person in the group, because all of them knew of each other since freshman year. Luckily, all the members were so friendly,” he said.

Now a master's student, Chin Hua is vice president of the Taiwanese Student Association and a member of the UC Pilot Club. He will be the first student from Feng Chia to complete the full five-year degree program at UC. He was also a recipient of the Luchen Scholarship for STEM students from five UC partner universities in Taiwan.

Juan Carlos Solis Galan, a second-year student from Mexico majoring in finance and business analytics, wanted to study in the central U.S., far from the borders, in order to immerse himself in the country’s culture. He found UC.

"I didn't think it was going to be as international or multicultural as it is," he said.

Solis is one of the Business Fellows in the Lindner College of Business, a member of the Queen City Consulting club (a nonprofit that works with local companies) and a part-time worker at Bearcat Promise Career Studio, coaching students to prepare for job searching.

He also joined the Delta Sigma Pi business fraternity after becoming friends with many of the members during his first year at UC.

“I love those people. I found a family within that fraternity, so I love them,” he said. He also likes the career development and networking aspects of the professional fraternity.

Solis trained to become a Student Orientation Leader (SOL) last summer.

“The best part of it was being able to share my experience with incoming students and make them know they belong here," he said. "Taking those first steps to move out of your country, going to a different culture … it makes you try new challenges and defy your comfort zone. What I would love to get out of UC would be that professional and personal growth.”

When he finishes his degree, Solis is thinking about graduate school and a career in corporate finance at a multinational company.  

“I would recommend UC for other international students because it's a great combination of having the full college experience and having a lovely city and a lovely place to grow. The programs that we have here at UC are planned and organized in a way that is going to let you grow and take your own steps, with a lot of experiential learning that a lot of other universities around the U.S. and around the world don't have,” Solis said.

UC News first interviewed Luisa Lopez from Colombia last year in a “how it started, how it’s going” feature when she came to UC as one of the record 2022 international cohort. She was then a first-year public relations major, and now she is pursuing a degree in business analytics.

She said she found Cincinnati in a list of best world cities to live in, saw pictures of UC's beautiful campus and read about co-op. UC was the only global university she decided to apply to.

Feature image: International students at UC. Doctoral student Prosper Tornyi is second left. | Photo by Kathleen Hornstra, UC International

Additional reporting by Kathleen Hornstra, Natalie Ochmann and Cedric Ricks