Midwest university embraces Chinese students

CHICAGO — "We are enriched by having Chinese students and scholars on campus," said Terence Miller, director of the Office of International Education at Marquette University.

"Chinese students are delightful. They're bright, they're intellectually curious, they see the value of an education in the United States, and they see that their lives can be enriched," Miller said. "Every classroom, every research project, every lab that has someone from China is enriched by a different world view, a different perspective of the world."

Among the 11,294 newly enrolled students in 2017, 564 international students coming from 42 countries were admitted by the Midwestern university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with Chinese students comprising the largest international group on campus.

"We particularly value Chinese students and the engagement of Chinese students in the academic community here," said Miller.

"When Chinese students come to Marquette, they are integrated. We offer an array of different opportunities. Our engineering program is by far the strongest and well represented by the Chinese community," the director added.

The number of Marquette's international students has grown at an average rate of 11.2 percent in the past five years, and China is the largest contributor to that growth, with some 360 Chinese students studying there in 2017, the university statistics show.

Chinese students used to flock to universities on the US east and west coasts. But things have changed in recent years, with more students from China enrolled at universities in the US hinterlands.

According to Quartz, a digital news website, 40 percent of international students studying in the Midwestern state of Wisconsin were from China in July 2018.

"We take that as a sacred trust between the parents who are sending us the student and our ability to give them the intellectual framework, the knowledge and the critical thinking skills," Miller said.

While receiving students from China, Marquette also has signed cooperation ties with Chinese universities in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong.

"We've been able to build really substantial relationships with Chinese universities that have the same prestige and academically rigorous market. We have a relationship with Peking University, and it was really a fabulous relationship for years," said Miller.

Established in 1881, Marquette University has prided itself on inclusiveness for students from both America and overseas.

"There's a genuine interest and openness by Americans to engage with the world," Miller told Xinhua, adding that it will persist.

Statistics show that more than 1.06 million international students came to the United States for study in 2017, and Chinese students accounted for roughly 30 percent of them.

By place of origin for international students studying in the United States in the 2016-17 school year, 363,341 students came from China, according to Open Doors 2018, released by the State Department and the Institute of International Education on Tuesday.