The document discusses research methods for studying international students in higher education. It describes interviewing as a method, noting its strengths in gaining personal insights but weaknesses in selecting interview subjects and formulating questions. The document also examines applying a humanism perspective to acknowledge diversity and understand social events from participants' meanings and culture. Sample interview questions are provided for 10 international students at Indiana University ranging from freshmen to graduate level. Statistics are presented on international student enrollment trends at IU Bloomington and top US institutions, as well as their countries of origin and fields of study.

1. International Students in Higher Education

2. Research Method
 Interviewing
 Strengths
 Opinions
 Meanings differ among people (national origin,
social class, sex, gender, socioeconomic)
 Personal insights
 Learn something new

3.  Weaknesses
 Who to interview? Friends or strangers?
 Establishing trust with a stranger
 Transcribing data
 Formulating good questions
 Needs good communication skills

4. Applied Method
 Humanism Perspective
 The interpretation and understanding of social
events by analyzing their meanings to the human
participants and their culture
 < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermeneutics#Sociology>

5. Applied Method
 Strengths
 Accepting diversity
 Be open minded to social issues
 Encourages people to be ethical
 Desire to learn from different perspectives

6. Applied Method
 Weaknesses
 Are the informants being truthful?
 Lacked of empirical data to support the concept

7. The Informants
 10 international students
 5 male, 5 female
 Various nationality
 Ranging from freshman to graduate students

8. Sample Questions
 Why IU?
 If you can choose, where would you prefer to
go?
 How do you pay for college?
 Major? Why?
 How do you deal with cultural barriers?

9. Globalization
 Refers to trends in higher education that have
cross‐national implications
 Global market place for students

10. Economic Contribution
 Indiana University‐Bloomington
 2007‐2008
 $102,580,000
 94% of IU’s undergrads are self contributing
 US Total: 15.5 billion

11. IU Bloomington
 Fall 2008
 4,313 international students (10.66%)
 Top 10 countries
 S. Korea (1,092)
 China (607)
 India (563)
 Taiwan (281)
 Hong Kong (205)
 Japan (131)
 Canada (109)
 Indonesia (107)
 Turkey (102)
 Kazakhstan (67)

12. Top 10 countries

13. Enrollment Trends

14. Top US Institutions
 1 University of Southern California 7,189
 2 NYU 6,404
 3 Columbia 6,297
 4 University of Illinois‐Champaign 5,933
5 Purdue 5,772
 6 University of Michigan‐Ann Arbor
 7 UCLA
 8 Univ. Texas‐Austin
 9 Harvard
 10 Boston Univ.
 11 UPenn
 12 SUNY Buffalo
13 IU Bloomington 4,313
 14 Ohio State
 15 Michigan State
 16 Univ. of Florida
 17 Texas A&M
 18 Arizona State
 19 Cornell
 20 Univ. of Wisconsin 3,910
 http://opendoors.iienetwork.org/?p=131530

15. US total
 2007‐2008
 623,805 total international students (3.5%)
 The majority concentrated in California,
Massachusetts, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania
and Illinois

16. Fields of Study
 Business 20%
 Engineering 17%
 Social Sciences 9%
 Physical Sciences 18%
 Others 36%