Understanding International Students from Asia in American Universities ─ Learning and Living Globalization

This book is about international students from Asia studying at American universities in the age of globalization. It explores significant questions, such as: Why do they want to study in America? How do they make their college choices? To what extent do they integrate with domestic students, and what are the barriers for intergroup friendship? How do faculty and administrators at American institutions respond to changing campus and classroom dynamics with a growing student body from Asia? Have we provided them with the skills they need to succeed professionally? As they are preparing to become the educational, managerial and entrepreneurial elites of the world, do Asian international students plan to stay in the U.S. or return to their home country?

Asian students constitute over 70 percent of all international students. Almost every major American university now faces unprecedented enrollment growth from Asian students. However, American universities rarely consider if they truly understand the experiences and needs of these students. This book argues that American universities need to learn about their Asian international students to be able to learn from them. It challenges the traditional framework that emphasizes adjustment and adaptation on the part of international students. It argues for the urgency to shift from this framework to the one calling for proactive institutional efforts to bring about successful experiences of international students.

Yingyi Ma is the Director of Asian/Asian American Studies and an associate professor in Sociology at Syracuse University, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. In 2014, she was named Inaugural O’Hanley Faculty Scholar. She has also been co-chair of East Asia SIG of Comparative and International Education Society. She is a sociologist of education and migration. Her current research examines international student mobility, Asian international students in the United States and the surge of Chinese international students in American Universities. She is currently writing a book titled “Study in the U.S: The New Education Gospel in China” to be published by Columbia University Press. Her earlier work focused on who studied in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields and why, including the formation of aspirations, college major choice, and degree attainment in STEM fields. That line of research has received grants from National Science Foundation, Alfred Sloan Foundation, and Association of Institutional Research. Yingyi received her Ph.D. in sociology from Johns Hopkins University in 2006.