.webp "STUDY IN USA: NEP 2020 has made Indian institutions prioritise internationalisation for which they want to partner with foreign institutions")
To strengthen education ties with India and increase research-driven university, Lehigh University, Pennsylvania, has been driving student recruitment programmes and university partnerships in India. The University hosted the ‘Building Futures Workshop’ in Mumbai to guide counsellors and students navigate the complexities of the college admissions process. Cheryl Matherly, vice president and vice provost for International Affairs, Lehigh University, while speaking to Education Times on the sidelines of the event highlighted the emerging areas that attract Indian students for better employability. Excerpts from the interview:
What is the vision behind your India-visit and your long-term goal of encouraging more Indian students to apply for US admissions?
There is a lot of interest in strengthening India-US higher education collaborations. For Lehigh, India is one of our regions of strategic importance. Part of the reason for that is smart, talented students and the fact that we are in the business of educating them. Hence, we are excited to be here and have a chance to raise our visibility and engage with them. But even beyond that, the work that we do around engineering programmes, health space, bioengineering and biotechnology, our approach towards interdisciplinary and entrepreneurial education seems to resonate here in the Indian market. In short, we are working on building our brand in India as a high-quality partner for Indian academic institutions. A unique way to do that is by talking with counsellors and students which is why we are hosting the workshop in India. The students have been engaged in a hands-on immersive project, where they are learning the principles of thinking entrepreneurially, which is not necessarily venture creation, but about how they can think, define problems and approach them differently, which is well within the culture of what we do at the university.
Which are some of the common mistakes students make during the application process?
The whole idea of US admissions is holistic by nature, so even if sometimes students come in with the idea that it is all based on test scores and grades, that is a narrow focus of what really works in the system. One of the things that defines US admissions is the fact that we are trying to find students who have the best potential. Particularly, students who are applying to selective schools in the US tend to create a persona in their application that does not bear resemblance to who they really are. That is primarily because they fear their real selves is not good enough, while most of them turn out to be quite interesting in fact. Hence, they should chase what they want, and not what they think we want. On the whole, we are looking for students who have a breadth of interests. It is also important for students to understand what is unique about the university they are applying to, and how they are going to benefit from that particular experience.
Could you elaborate on the trends in the US higher education market and its uniqueness?
The US higher education market is very large and diverse, so that no two universities are alike. It has to do with differences in size, programmes, student experiences, locations, and in the kinds of networks they offer, giving access to markets, employers, and connections thereafter. With that said, probably the biggest concern right now is how institutions talk about Return on Investment (RoI). So for all the things that we are different, we also recognise that coming and studying in the US is an investment. Issues related to the relevance of the degrees, employability and additional graduate study are major thrust areas of what is driving a lot of the discussions in US higher education. There is also a very strong focus on experiential learning which is one of the strings of applied learning and how you take what you learned in a classroom to turn around and be able to apply that into an actual problem or a real-life situation. While looking at the future factors that are changing the job market, there is also talk about AI as a disrupter and how do we help students think in terms of future proofing. That is where we talk about the importance of interdisciplinary learning. One of the things that dominates a lot of the discussions, is that once students finish a four-year degree, that does not mean they are done with education. It is important to build a culture of lifelong learning so that students realise they need to upskill themselves to stay future relevant.
What is the total international student intake at your campus and where do Indian students figure in terms of student strength?
There are altogether 7,590 students of which 5,811 are undergraduate and 1,779 graduate students. For the period 2023 – 2024, the total international students enrolled were 1,003 with 425 undergraduate students and 578 graduate students. We have 82 countries represented on the campus. Our largest population of international students are from China. At the undergraduate level, our next largest population is from Vietnam and, then Indian students are the third largest. Ghana and Brazil round out the top five countries for undergraduate students. At the graduate level, China is still at the top, and India is our second-largest population of graduate students. Iranian students are our third largest population, so we have a very different mix.
What is the scenario like for Indian students from programmes to jobs?
Our undergraduate students have interests that are much more reflective of the diversity of programmes that we have across the university. Out of the students who are coming in, a lot are interested in Engineering, but there are many who are also interested in business. Several of them are also interested in humanities, music, arts and sciences. We are seeing more of our graduate students looking at the business programmes and have a heavy intake of students coming into our MBA programme this and next year. Our largest enrolment of Indian students is at the master’s level, much like what we see as trends in the US. In master’s programmes, some have a research track, while many of them are more industry focused. Students are drawn towards Business Analytics, financial engineering, Fintech areas, Chemical Engineering, Structural Engineering, Computer Science, among the programmes on offer.
We are aware that RoI is measured by one’s ability to get a job. The Wall Street Journal ranks Lehigh as the 14th best university, it is based on how one delivers on outcomes. As many as 95% of our undergraduate students within six months after graduation have a job or are in graduate school, which for international students is 98% and those are high numbers. Our centre for Career and Professional Development works and talks with international students about their career choices in graduate school besides working with companies to understand what the opportunities are for international students.
Your university seems to be aligned with the NEP 2020. So, in what way is it a common ground for your collaborative ties with Indian universities?
The biggest impact of the NEP is to see internationalisation move to the centre of priorities for Indian institutions wherein they want to partner with foreign institutions. Specifically with partnerships, we are looking at dual degree tie ups and cooperations. One of our partnerships is with SRM University that provides an opportunity to select students to perform experiential summer research at Lehigh University. Our current partnerships also include ties with Ashoka University for facilitating student exchange programmes, cross institutional research and entrepreneurial opportunities; with IIT Kharagpur, it is for projects related to Mountaintop/Creative Inquiry; and IIT Bombay for a bilateral student exchange programme. We are also working with OP Jindal University to develop a dual certificate in International School Counselling.
What are some of your safety measures on campus given the rising incidences of violence against Indian students?
We are fortunate that in Bethlehem (in northeast Pennsylvania) where we are located, it is generally a safe community. Apart from cautioning international students about their personal safety, we have a campus safety app that all students must download onto their phones from the time they get into the campus. It is a tool called Hawk Watch which has a lot of different resources for personal safety, be it for communicating with the entire campus if we had an emergency, or if there was some sort of threat to the campus It also has other features like, notifying a friend if a student wanted to be monitored as he/she walks across campus. Additionally, the chief of campus police every year, comes and spends time with the international students so that they get to know him, and he gets to know them to address safety concerns if any.
Right now, you are overseeing International Affairs at your university. How are the Student Support Services and cultural integration programmes helping the students?
We want students to see that the university is a place that they belong, and that we are invested in them. That is what contributes to a student’s academic success. We have an Office of International Students and Scholars where the focus is on immigration and compliance issues. We do an in-person orientation when students arrive, but actually begin that process much earlier. Our students who have been admitted, already start to get materials from us as part of an online orientation, so that it helps with some of the adjustment and to have a little longer period before they show up on campus. We also have peer mentoring programmes where students who, once they are admitted, are matched with another Lehigh student to begin peer mentoring. We also have international orientation leaders, who are international students who want to come back and help the new incoming students learn something more about the university. Another thing that we do is offer ‘friendship families’ at the university. These are faculty and staff at the university, who are interested in our international community, and they offer up to be a friendship family to international students, inviting them for dinner or having a Thanksgiving meal. One third of Lehigh faculty had a degree from abroad which means many of them understand what it is like to be an international student. And that degree of empathy goes a long way in mentoring the students.
There is also the International Centre for Academic and Professional English which helps with academic adjustment and how to be a student in a US setting. As part of our campus diversity, we have an ‘annual International Bazaar’ and ‘Bethlehem’ where students perform, sharing food from their culture, and dance, apart from a large number of international clubs and organisations on campus.