UCLA’s international student enrollment is up

UCLA is enrolling increasing numbers of international students despite growing competition from universities abroad, according to a recent report from the Institute of International Education.

The report, which came out this week, showed that 8,424 international students attended UCLA in the 2012-2013 academic year – up about 1,700 students from the previous year. The report ranked UCLA sixth in the country for the number of international students enrolled.

The trend is significant, especially because there is more competition among universities looking to enroll international students in the past decade, said Mitchell Chang, education professor at UCLA.

The majority of international students at UCLA continue to be from eastern and southern Asia. The top three countries that UCLA’s international students come from are China, India and South Korea, according to Gary Clark Jr., director of undergraduate admissions at UCLA.

Sara Lin, a second-year applied linguistics student from Taiwan, said she came to the U.S. for school because her parents told her she could get a more well-rounded education in the U.S.

“My family had always expected that I’d go to school in another country,” Lin said. “I’d never visited UCLA, but I knew from general knowledge that it had a pretty campus and that California has good weather.”

Chang said the U.S. is successful in attracting more international students despite the aggressive recruiting and enrolling efforts of countries like Australia, Canada and European Union nations.

The University of California has recently worked to recruit international students more heavily to boost revenue, since international and out-of-state students pay more in tuition, said Val Rust, education professor and former director of the UCLA Education Abroad Program .

“Obtaining a degree from a top institution in the U.S., such as UCLA, is still regarded as something highly prestigious and generally opens up more opportunities for those who earn those degrees,” Chang said.

Kang Kim, a third-year sociology student from South Korea, said UCLA wasn’t a hard sell for her.

“(International students) come because UCLA is considered high class, and that perception is true somewhat,” Kim said. “Los Angeles in general is also good for us. The food here is good, and the people are diverse.”

Kim said that moving to a new country is a culture shock and the language barriers sometimes made it harder to get involved.

Yao Zhang, an first-yearundeclared student from China, said he chose to attend UCLA because he thought he’d have an academic advantage over other students who stayed in China.

“I believe the education here is much more valuable,” Zhang said. “We believe that we can get a better job in our country (after coming to UCLA).”