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Mary Ben Marklein at USA Today writes about the ongoing boom in foreign students attending colleges and universities in the United States. In 2011, the number of international students jumped to 764,495, up 6% from 2010. That’s largely due to an uptick of students from China and Saudi Arabia making their way to the US. This is a positive trend in several regards. 1) It shows the strength of the US higher education system in the demand for students from other places. 2) Most of these students pay out-of-state tuition, which brings in a great deal of revenue to US colleges and universities… an estimated $22.7 billion a year 3) The US needs to find ways to attract and keep academic and workforce talent. The fact that the US is attracting talent is a good starting point. Now, perhaps, the nation needs to keep working on keeping the talent it attracts and trains. 4) Students that do return home to places such as China and Saudi Arabia hopefully take a few classes in American government, economics, journalism and other topics. And hopefully they take some of these ideas back home. Meanwhile, the rate of US students studying abroad is growing, albeit more slowly. It’s just as important for US students to learn abroad and bring back ideas and best practices as well.

Marklein writes:

A study in the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication suggests that many international students are disappointed in their relationships with U.S. students. Author Elisabeth Gareis found that 38% of 454 international students attending 10 public universities had reported no strong friendships with U.S. students, and 27% were not satisfied with the quality of the friends they had made. Students from China and East Asia were most likely to be unhappy with relationships.

Peggy Blumenthal, a senior official at the IIE, made note of one benefit for the increase in international enrollments: tuition revenue. Most international students pay full tuition, and about two-thirds pay primarily using personal and family funds. That tuition revenue enables colleges to offer financial aid to domestic students, she said.

International students and their dependents contributed $22.7 billion to the U.S. economy last year in tuition, fees and living expenses, the report estimated. A separate analysis that accounts for differences among institutions, published by the non-profit NAFSA: Association of International Educators, estimates that contribution at $21.8 billion. Among other IIE study findings:

China continues to send the most students — 194,029 last year — to the USA, up 23% from the previous year. The number of students from Saudi Arabia jumped 50%, to 34,139. Much of that increase is driven by a scholarship program launched in 2005 by Saudi King Abdullah.

Via USA Today