It’s 1 a.m. in DeKalb and Johnson Wor is happily talking on the phone. He’s a doctoral student at Northern Illinois University studying Art & Design Education.
It’s late at night here, but first thing in the morning in Ghana -- where he’s from and where his wife and three young kids still are.
“I want to be sure that the night was okay for them, and they slept peacefully,” he said. “Because I study deep into the night, I'm able to stay awake and talk to them before the start of the day.”
It’s a sacrifice many international students make. And, in 2024, more and more international students are coming to the U.S. International enrollment has blown past pre-pandemic levels and is growing at a quicker clip than in decades.
In Illinois, over the past five years, international undergrad enrollment hasn’t changed much, But international graduate student enrollment is up almost 40%.
And at NIU, the number of international grad students has grown almost 30% in that time.
Kerry Wilks is the VP of international affairs at NIU.
She says it’s not just pent-up demand from the pandemic. She says we’re seeing changing markets and changing rules that have benefited the U.S.
“Other primary English-speaking markets have started putting more restrictions on international students, doing things like increasing the amount of funds students have to show before they arrive,” she said.
Then there’s the market shift. This year, for the first time, India became the country that sends the most students to America. And Wilks says that market is traditionally more geared towards masters-level students.
NIU’s Stephanie Brown says that’s where Northern has been ahead of the curve.
“It used to be unique. NIU, the entire time I've been here, has had more graduate international students than undergrad, even at the time when the market was very heavily undergrad,” she said. “India has been our top country of origin for our international students. The entire time I've been here, and that is largely because our population has been grad.”
Faculty play a major role in recruiting graduate-level students. Think about Wor, for example. His journey to DeKalb started in 2020 back in Ghana. He’s working on a research paper and stumbles across an article by Kerry Freedman that he absolutely loves. She’s an art & design education professor at NIU.
“I quickly noted NIU as one of the universities I would like to pursue my PhD, because having such a professor to mentor you is a big deal,” he said. “I'm happy she's currently my advisor now.”
NIU has been investing in the Indian market for over a decade. And they’ve been successfully attracting those students because of faculty like Purush Damodaran. He’s an Industrial and Systems Engineering professor at NIU. Damodaran, himself, arrived at Northern as an international grad student from India.
“When I was a graduate student, maybe we had five, six international students, who came every year. And then when I became the department chair in 2012 we had roughly 30 graduate students, most of them international students” he said.
The number of international grad students in his department skyrocketed from there. It was well over 100 before the pandemic caused the numbers to dip, but he says they’re bouncing back.
The morning we spoke, five new students came to his office to introduce themselves. Damodaran met them last year on a trip to India talking with schools about NIU. He visits every year to go to conferences and recruit.
He talks with students and their families about their questions and concerns. They talk about safety, internship opportunities, their Engineers in Residence program, and mentorship.
“I have been in big schools where they bring in 1000s of graduate students to one program. It is hard to remember the names of the students and listen to them a lot,” said Damodaran. “Here that is not the case. We offer the gift of time.”
But he says NIU’s biggest advantage is their own graduate students.
“They feel that they have to give something back to the department. There are so many students who volunteer to go and talk about their experience to anyone,” he said.
Johnson Wor and other international students are giving back by serving as student ambassadors. The program just started last year.
Bola Wunuken is one. She’s a grad student from Nigeria, getting a degree in rehab counseling. She says they hold cultural exchange events on campus and help other international students get adjusted to their new country. It could be helping set up a bank account or just giving restaurant recommendations.
She remembers when she first arrived at NIU with her kids. She was anxious, struggling, and sick. But a professor encouraged her and helped her settle in. Now, she does the same for other new international students -- like one who was recently going through the same issues.
“She has three kids and when I told her, ‘I have kids’ she was like, ‘Wow!” I could see her face literally just popped up, you know? She's like, ‘Oh, that's so cool.’ And I told her, ‘see, if I could survive, I know you can,’” said Wunuken.
By supporting international students academically and socially -- NIU hopes they’ll continue to attract more and more students…and continue offering a home away from home, even when home is thousands of miles away.
