State Dept Official Remarks for the NAGAP

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http://exchanges.state.gov/about/senior-leadership/remarks-for-the-national-association-of-graduate-admissions-professionals-nagap-.html

Remarks for the National Association of Graduate Admissions Professionals (NAGAP)

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, Ambassador J. Adam Ereli

Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Washington, D.C.

April 8, 2011

Thank you for that very kind introduction. It is honor for me to be here today to represent the Department of State. First, because our partnership with the National Association of Graduate Admissions Professionals is a long one and one that we greatly value.

Secondly, and as I presume you're aware, international education exchange has been one of the pillars of American foreign policy for over half a century. In 1946, the Fulbright Act became law and established mutual understanding as a core principle of American foreign policy.

In the 65 years since, we have funded the study of literally hundreds of thousands of foreign graduate students in the United States and count among their alumni scores of Presidents, ministers and leaders around the world. Beyond that, we have embarked in the last decade, on a concerted effort around the globe to attract private students to America's institutions of higher learning.

This effort cannot succeed without a close and coordinated partnership between us and you, the graduate admissions professionals.

I want to talk today about the importance of international education to America's national security interests and how we can work together to fulfill President Obama's and Secretary Clinton's vision of building both a more secure international order and more competitive, prosperous nation at home.

Education has a prominent place in President Obama's National Security Strategy. In it, he says, "We must educate our children to compete in an age where knowledge is capital, and the marketplace is global... We must pursue science and research that enables discovery. ...we must see American innovation as a foundation of American power."

People-to people exchanges are at the heart of Secretary Clinton's Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, which is the State Department's strategic roadmap for 21st century diplomacy. Entitled, "Leading through Civilian Power," she writes that today's foreign policy challenges will be solved by "thinking more regionally and globally... and bringing countries and peoples together as only America can."

The QDDR calls on us to "deepen engagement with our closest allies and partners" and it places a priority on reaching non-State actors, with a particular focus on women and youth in civil society.

As a diplomat who has worked overseas for more than twenty years, I can attest to the fact that nothing contributes more directly or meaningfully to fulfilling these goals than bringing young people from overseas to study in the United States.

As Deputy Chief of Mission in Qatar from 2000 to 2003, I helped attract U.S. institutions to Education City, which now hosts the campuses of Georgetown, Cornell-Weill Medical School, Texas A&M, Carnegie-Mellon, and Northwestern Universities. In my view, there is a direct link between this presence and a strong bilateral relationship with an important ally in a strategically vital part of the world.

As Public Affairs Counselor at our Embassy in Iraq from 2008 to 2009, we initiated a scholarship program that has as its goal the sending of 10,000 Iraqis a year for study in the United States. For almost 30 years under the rule of Saddam Hussein, Iraq became almost completely cut off from the West. As we try to overcome decades of isolation and repression, educating a successor generation that has known only conflict and victimization will be essential to building a viable, pluralistic democracy founded on the principals of openness and tolerance.

In Pakistan, the government recognizes the importance of education to countering violent extremism. That is why they have contributed $42 million to the Fulbright Program over the last 5 years.

In Indonesia, the world's fourth largest country and home to the world's largest Muslim population, President Obama announced a robust five-year commitment to higher education exchange under the U.S.-Indonesia Comprehensive Partnership. As part of this commitment, we have launched the new Fulbright Indonesia Research, Science and Technology program that will provide more opportunities for American and Indonesian students and scholars to collaborate in these critical fields. The President also pledged to double the number of Indonesian students in the U.S. - as well as increasing the number of Americans studying in Indonesia.

In Strategic Dialogues with China, India, and Russia, education is a key sector identified by both governments as a priority area for collaboration.

These examples demonstrate, I believe, that education is a robust and central element of our engagement overseas.

But beyond advancing mutual understanding and strengthening our own educational system, foreign students make a significant economic contribution to the United States. They bring about $20 billion per year into the U.S., making education our 5th largest services export.

During the 2009-2010 academic year, the number of international students studying in the United States increased by 3% to nearly 691,000 during academic year 2009-2010. More than 40% of these students are studying at the graduate level.

So from a public policy perspective, education is not just good business, -- it is a strategic imperative.

Our challenge at the State Department and the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs is: how do we increase the number of foreign students studying the in the United States? How do we reach out and engage the key audiences that are so critical to our collective futures - women and under-served communities? How do we overcome institutional and attitudinal barriers to studying in the United States?

Barriers such as inaccurate ideas about the U.S. visa process that discourage students from applying to U.S. schools.

Or our decentralized educational system that poses a challenge for international students.

Or high tuition costs that make study in the U.S. seem out of reach for many.

This brings me to the second issue I wanted to talk about today: how we can work together to harness the power of international education in support of a safer, more stable world.

Let me begin by briefly describing what we at the State Department are doing overseas to attract foreign students to the United States.

Outside the State Department, I am not aware of any other single entity has the global reach to promote U.S. higher education abroad.

Precisely because expanding the opportunity of education in the United States to a greater number and diversity of overseas students has become such an important foreign policy priority for the United States, we in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs have undertaken an innovative and aggressive program of educational advising.

At the heart of this effort is EducationUSA - a global network of more than 400 Advising Centers in nearly every country of the world. Led by my colleague, Caryn Danz, who will be speaking with you shortly, Education USA reaches millions of students each year who need guidance to understand our higher education system and our application process.

For example, here in Washington, EducationUSA has a centralized team that develops materials and program support to our overseas offices. This year, they have provided 150 different marketing products designed for specific country needs to over 700,000 students.

Overseas, EducationUSA is reaching out to students, rather than waiting for them to find us. In the last six months alone, by using social media and mobile technology, we have connected to over 1 million students virtually - through webinars, virtual college fairs, and social networking. In China and India -- the two most important countries for international recruiting -- we have turned almost entirely to virtual and mobile advising. And we are revising the training curriculum for our educational advisors overseas to ensure that they are prepared to handle their new responsibilities for outreach and marketing.

And we want to share with you the experiences of our advisors overseas. We know it is impossible for any single institution to recruit in every country around the world...so we are eager to help you expand your efforts in places you might not be able to reach without us.

Each year, for example, we hold two conferences in a different region of the world. They provide an opportunity for our regional educational advisors and Washington-based personnel to meet with members of the higher education communities and to establish partnerships with local institutions and devise coordinated strategies to achieve our shared goals.

Coincidently, our next conference is set for next week in Doha for the Middle East and North Africa region...and another conference is being planned for early next year in Asia.

And, to enable you to consult with EducationUSA without traveling abroad, we periodically hold conferences here in Washington. The first EducationUSA Forum last year attracted over 200 U.S. higher education representatives. This year's Forum will double in size. If you would like to join us at the Forum on June 22-24, you will have the opportunity to consult with 40 of our advisers from major sending countries, along with all twelve of our regional coordinators.

Another very worthwhile program the State Department offers is the Opportunity Funds Program. It is available through EducationUSA centers in 49 countries around the world and helps highly qualified students from disadvantaged backgrounds with the up-front costs of testing and application that would otherwise prevent them from taking even the first steps toward application and admission.

I'd like to acknowledge the generous response of many U.S. institutions that are providing scholarships and tuition awards to these outstanding international students with financial need. EducationUSA advisers work hard to identify students who are most deserving of support and appreciate the partnership of U.S. institutions in making these students' dreams a reality.

The great journalist and public diplomacy pioneer Edward R. Murrow often spoke about "the last three feet," which is the term he used to describe the final distance that had to be traveled to make that personal connection and effectively transmit our message. In a sense, all of you who serve at universities are the last three feet in reaching and influencing the foreign students that we are so aggressively recruiting.

It doesn't help us if, after all that time and effort, they finally come here and have a bad experience. Our campuses must provide a welcoming environment for international students. You can help by integrating them into your communities and encouraging them to share their culture. We still hear too many stories of international students who spend their time primarily with fellow students from their home country or region, primarily speaking their own language rather than improving their English. When this happens, we lose an opportunity for American students and international students alike.

In closing, I just want to underscore how important it is that we work together. We really are in a situation of mutual dependency and we thank you for your cooperation, partnership and support.