A Global Model For Higher Educational Institutions To Increase The Enrollment Of Minority And International Students
- Conference
- Location
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Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Publication Date
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June 22, 2008
- Start Date
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June 22, 2008
- End Date
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June 25, 2008
- ISSN
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2153-5965
- Conference Session
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Global Engineering in an Interconnected World / International Division Poster Session
- Tagged Division
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International
- Page Count
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12
- Page Numbers
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13.44.1 - 13.44.12
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--3408
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/3408
- Download Count
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373
Paper Authors
Fazil Najafi University of Florida
Dr. Najafi is a professor of Civil and Coastal Engineering at the University of Florida. He earned his BSCE from the American College of Engineering, Kabul, Afghanistan, and his BSAE, MS, and PhD degrees in Civil Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He has worked for 35 years in government, industry, and education. Besides teaching during more than 20 years, Dr. Najafi has conducted research, has been a participating member of several professional societies including ASEE, has published numerous refereed and non-refereed articles, and has presented many technical papers to international, national and local organizations.
Dennis Jet University of Florida
Dr.Jet is the Dean of International Center at the University of Florida. He was a former embassardor and a schalor with many years of experince.
Nick Safai Salt Lake City College
Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract
A Global Model for Higher Educational Institutions to Increase the Enrollment of Minority and International Students Abstract
The overall mission of a higher educational institution must include increasing the enroll- ment of minority and international students within its student population. The population of the United States is very diverse, yet many universities lack diversity within their student population. This paper presents a model that incorporates growth in the number of minority and international students within the existing student population as part of a university’s overall mission.
The proposed model focuses on university student enrollment and presents a step-by-step procedure of how to increase the number of minority and international students within the overall student population. To enhance the existing diversity of a university, the model looks at the existing university student population and sets a target number to achieve over a planning horizon. A realistic target number can be established by looking at the existing minority and international student population and the rate of change over the past ten years. A realistic yearly rate can only be established if the university already has an aggressive recruitment and retention program. The success of the model depends on how the university’s overall mission treats diversity in its future growth. In the overall growth picture, a diversity strategy should be included with a strong commitment to increase the number of minorities among the student body, faculty and staff. This model includes programs such as recruitment, retention, orientation, and professional development workshops. To increase the number of international students, the model looks at institutional centers such as Lain American studies, International Food and Agriculture Science studies, joint university research institutes, the Peace Corps, Centers for European, Asian, Middle Eastern, and African studies, as well as study-abroad programs, ambassador programs and recruitment, and orientation and retention of international students and scholars.
Allocation of resources plays a vital role in the implementation of the diversity model. The model includes two parts, one for each of the undergraduate and graduate populations. The programs need to be actively incorporated and coordinated within each department of the various colleges under the main umbrella of the university’s overall mission. The program coordinators work as a team in competitive cooperation to successfully implement the mission for diversity under the goals of the institution of higher learning. The team members’ aggressiveness, motivation, creativity, interpersonal skills, financial support and recognition of the importance of diversity within the student population play a vital role in the successful implementation of this program. The model includes an assessment feature and provides a mechanism that gives feedback from all colleges within the university for continuous monitoring of program assessment and improvement.
Najafi, F., & Jet, D., & Safai, N. (2008, June), A Global Model For Higher Educational Institutions To Increase The Enrollment Of Minority And International Students Paper presented at 2008 Annual Conference & Exposition, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 10.18260/1-2--3408
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