With enrollment about flat and plenty of room for growth, Mayville (N.D.) State University is starting a new major in hopes of attracting more students, specifically Chinese students seeking to bolster their English.
The starting goal is to add 10 to 20 new students majoring in communication in fall 2010, said Keith Stenehjem, vice president for academic affairs.
English fluency is a valuable skill in China, he said, and being immersed in an American community at a university with small classroom sizes is something students there would appreciate.
He said he'd earlier asked contacts in China why Mayville State's English major wasn't adequate. The contacts told him English literature isn't something Chinese students seek or would be successful in, he said.
Local students are also asking about a journalism degree, he said, so a communication program would serve both groups.
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Mayville State had 789 students enrolled at the start of the 2008-09 school year, but Stenehjem said the university could probably accommodate 1,000. He said he doesn't know yet far the communication program can boost enrollment. "Until we go through one year --that will tell us a lot about our capability of how many students we can handle on a campus our size."
While the university is still working on partnerships with Chinese universities and the exact tuition to be paid is undetermined, foreign students typically pay higher tuition, which means more funding for the university. In 2008-2009, tuition for a foreign student was $10,639.
Model for growth
The model for Mayville State's approach was Dickinson State University, which had 371 foreign students, not including Canadians, out of a student population of 2,730 in 2008-09. That's more than UND or North Dakota State University.
In the same year, Mayville State had three foreign students.
Many of the foreign students at Dickinson State are from China, thanks to a relationship Dickinson State University established with counterparts in China, relationships that Mayville State could also take advantage of, Stenehjem said.
The university had been working to emulate Dickinson State when the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, caused the federal government to crack down on student visas, Stenehjem said.
The university was only recently approved as a sponsor for students with J-1 visas, which allows students to stay one year. The plan is for Chinese students to attend the first two years at their own university in China and spend a year in Mayville before going back for the final year.
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Stenehjem said there's also a potential for having the students study in Mayville for the final two years.
The latest mark of progress is approval by the State Board of Higher Education for the communication program. Mayville State told the board in its application that it already has all the staff and courses needed. It just needs four more courses to have a degree program. "This major requires no additional cost," it said.
More diversity
For Mayville, the community and the campus, the influx of foreign students would mean more diversity, he said.
The university has students of other ethnic groups, such as Indians, he said, but a limited number of foreigners.
Besides students, local families could also interact with the foreign students.
As part of its role as host, the university would try to acclimate the students to their new home, such as asking local families to host them during U.S. holidays, Stenehjem said. Existing foreign students already make use of such local networks, he said, such as getting rides to bigger cities with locals.
Reach Tran at (701) 780-1248; (800) 477-6572, ext. 248; or send e-mail to ttran@gfherald.com .
