The secret of American community colleges has been revealed – to the entire world – and the population of international students enrolling in American community colleges is rapidly increasing.
The 2009 Open Doors report, issued by the Institute of International Education, provides a snapshot of current trends in international student enrollment in both community colleges and other institutions of post-secondary education. For anyone interested in the path that international student education is taking in America, the report is essential reading.
Texas and California Lead the Way in International Community College Students
The Open Doors report includes a list of the 40 community college with the highest populations of international students. Texas’s Houston Community College System tops the list; it boasts over 5,000 international students, which is about 9% of its total student population. Two other Texan community colleges also made it into the top ten: the Woodlands’s Lone Star College System, which enrolls over 2,000 international students, and Dallas’s Richland College, which enrolls over 1,200 international students. The percentage of the total student population that is of international origin for these two schools is 4.4% and 7.8%, respectively.
California also appears to lead the way in international student enrollment at community colleges. Like Texas, California is home to three of the top ten community colleges in terms of international student enrollment: Santa Monica College (in Southern California), De Anza College (in the Silicon Valley), and the City College of