Valued, but Not Recognized: International Graduate Students, Their Contributions, and Unclaimed Leverages

• In Event: Power in Graduate Education: Actors, Relations, and Accountability in the System

Abstract

International graduate students constitute about 20% of the U.S. graduate student body, and in some graduate fields, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, they represent the majority of the student body (Okahana & Zhou, 2018). By extension, they also shape the health of the U.S. workforce with advanced degrees, as 71.5% of international students who earned research doctorates from U.S. institutions of higher education between 2011 and 2017 expressed interest in staying in the U.S. post-graduation (National Science Foundation [NSF], 2018). Indeed, in the STEM field, one-third of doctoral scientists and engineers in 2016 were some type of immigrants, meaning in the U.S. with temporary visas or permanent residency, or are naturalized citizens (NSF, 2016). Innovative contributions of international graduate students have also been recognized (Chellaraj et al., 2005). Thus, by the numbers, the participation of international students in the U.S. graduate education plays no small part in the shaping of its learning, experience, and outcomes, although individual students might not be able to exercise this influence. Rarely, there is a discussion of how this group of students might collectively exert their power in shaping the learning, experience, and outcomes of U.S. graduate education.

In this essay, I will explore: 1) how this form of power and influence of international graduate students in the U.S. is understood by actors of the U.S. graduate education, 2) who exercise and leverage the collective weight of international graduate students in the contexts of shaping the learning, experience, and outcomes of U.S. graduate education, and 3) if and how this influence may empower international graduate students collectively. In doing so, I will examine the national discourse around internationalization of graduate education in the United States in the last decade, with particular focus on the notion of “internationalization at home.” Mainly, my exposition will focus on how the roles and contributions of international graduate students studying in the United States toward “internationalization at home” are discussed (or not discussed) and recognized (or not recognized).

This is a critical topic for discussion as colleges and universities increasingly emphasize their internationalization missions, while some international graduate students might be turning their backs to the U.S. (Berman, 2019). On the one hand, contributions of international graduate students to the U.S. academy (Council of Graduate Schools, 2017) and economy (NAFSA: Association of International Educators, n.d.) are often lauded by various actors in graduate education arguing for further “internationalization at home” with international graduate students. However, on the other hand, there are implicit and explicit pressures for these international graduate students to better integrate or assimilate into the U.S. graduate education and its norms. With the competition for attracting the best talents from abroad increasing, the under-appreciation of their contributions might have implications for attractiveness of the U.S. graduate education as the destination for higher learning. Particularly for those institutions with a higher reliance on international tuition revenues, both current and prospective international graduate students may have increasing leverage over aspects of the U.S. graduate education.

Authors

• Radomir Ray Mitic, University of North Dakota

• Hironao Okahana, Council of Graduate Schools