US Asian pivot fails academic test
By
Curtis S Chin and Jose B Collazo
BANGKOK -
When it comes to the United States in Asia, it
seems to be all about the "pivot" these days.
Witness President Barack Obama's first trip
overseas - to Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar -
after winning re-election as a further example of
a policy pivot eastward.
Just-released
data by the Institute of International Education
(IIE), however, makes clear that the pivot could
use some added dimensions. New substance should
follow old rhetoric about the pivot.
Business-to-business and people-to-people
contacts between the US and Southeast Asia have
long been a valuable cornerstone of both
commercial and "cultural diplomacy" and more is
needed to
enhance US bilateral
relationships throughout the region. Yet, what's
received little attention is the stagnant to
declining numbers of students from Southeast Asia
studying at US universities.
It is a trend
that needs addressing and could well be part of a
more robust pivot or "rebalancing" of US
engagement in Asia that moves beyond reinvigorated
diplomatic and defense cooperation between the US
and its Pacific allies.
Over the past
decade, the US has developed stronger ties with
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
as well as with individual member nations. One
example of this strengthened engagement: former US
president George W Bush named the first US
ambassador to ASEAN - a post that was made
resident in Jakarta under Obama.
Education
provides a unique opportunity to build on, with
concrete steps needed to encourage more students
from Southeast Asia to study in the US and vice
versa. New US secretaries of state and education
may well find this an area of increased
cooperation that would be welcomed in Asia.
Institute of International Education data
shows that for now, the overall numbers are
stagnant, with 46,063 students from Southeast
Asia, including Timor-Leste, studying at US
universities in 2012. This is for the most part
unchanged from the previous academic year, when
the IIE reported 46,020 students studying in the
US. There is though tremendous variation by
nation.
According to the IIE's "Open Doors
2012" report on international education exchange,
of the 10 ASEAN nations, Vietnam leads the group
with 15,572 students studying in US undergraduate
and graduate programs. That's up 5% from the year
before. In contrast, the number of students from
Thailand has fallen 7% to 7,626 students in that
same period. For Singapore, the number increased
4% to just over 4,500 students pursuing university
level studies in the US.
Why the
relatively unchanged overall number of Southeast
Asian students studying in the US? Uncertain
economies in parts of Asia and in the US may well
be factors. In contrast, the number of Chinese
students in the US continues to boom with now more
than 194,000 reported in US graduate and
undergraduate programs. That's more than 25% of
the now record high number of 764,495
international students in the US.
At the
same time, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada,
and New Zealand are becoming increasingly popular
choices for students in Asia, as these countries
make concerted efforts to attract international
students. China is also aggressively pursuing
students from the region.
Recognizing the
"soft power" value of international education,
China is steadily working to increase its number
and share of international students - especially
those from ASEAN member countries.
In
2011, more than 30,000 students from ASEAN nations
studied in China. That's a number that China plans
to grow to 100,000 by 2020 under its "Double
100,000 Students Mobility Program". The program
also envisions 100,000 Chinese students studying
throughout ASEAN countries. If this program
reaches its goal, vastly more students from
Southeast Asia will be studying in China than in
the US.
To lure students, some governments
and universities also are designing programs that
cut down on paperwork and wait times by having
student visa and academic enrollment processes
work more in tandem.
A 2011 Australian
Education International (AEI) survey of some 1,330
students drawn from six Asian nations sheds light
on the impact of such efforts. Overwhelmingly,
students ranked Australia's procedures and
approval waiting time as more efficient and faster
than those of the US. Canada and the United
Kingdom also received higher rankings than the US.
There are simple ways to change present
trends.
First, the US should take a lesson
from others. The US should roll out pilot programs
that harmonize the university enrollment and
student visa application processes in order to
reduce wait times and uncertainty, as Australia
has done. The US student visa and application
processes are separate procedures for
international applicants - one managed by the US
State Department, the other by individual
universities. A student who has been accepted to a
US university may well find a visa comes too late,
if at all, to begin studies on time.
Second, the US Department of State's
"Education USA" activities should further
highlight the wide variety of US educational
opportunities available. The US has
internationally recognized state colleges that
would be the envy of many nations and would
welcome more international students, including
from Southeast Asia.
Third, US policy
makers should recognize that international
education is a competitive advantage and must be
included as a key component of the US policy pivot
to Asia. An inability to adapt to this reality is
costing the US opportunities to re-energize
valuable cultural linkages to Southeast Asia today
that could well pay dividends tomorrow on both
sides of the Pacific.
Curtis S
Chin is a senior fellow and
executive-in-residence at the Asian Institute of
Technology. He served as US Ambassador to the
Asian Development Bank (2007-2010) under
Presidents Barack Obama and George W Bush and is a
managing director with RiverPeak Group. Jose B
Collazo is a frequent commentator on Southeast
Asia. Follow him on Twitter at @josebcollazo.
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