Foreign study safe — and essential, college leaders say

The indictment of Amanda Knox on murder charges this week in Italy is sure to send a shudder through parents wanting to send students abroad to study, City University of Seattle President Lee Gorsuch told a luncheon crowd Wednesday.

The University of Washington student's tragic case could cause institutions to worry more about legal liability and could prove "very detrimental" in the effort to better prepare students for a global economy, Gorsuch said. The media has overplayed the case, he said, and parents needed to remember that tens of thousands of students study abroad every year without incident.

Gorsuch was part of a panel that included Washington State University President Elson Floyd and Fairleigh Dickinson University President J. Michael Adams. The luncheon was part of the City University-sponsored Global Collaboration in Higher Education week.

Gorsuch said the U.S. is falling significantly behind in the global competition for intellectual capital, and that more top students from China and India are finding prospects back home after they finish their studies here. He said only about 1 percent of U.S. students study abroad.

However, the panel agreed that it's a good thing more foreign students are choosing to study in the U.S. this year, following a period in which the numbers flattened due to tighter visa requirements after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Floyd said there's a new paradigm for overseas students. Whereas once they were expected to fork out the full cost of a U.S. education, now foreign students are increasingly able to take advantage of sponsorships offered by international groups.

"We need to be aggressive in opening up the doors to our institutions," Floyd said. "We need to be very aggressive in our international partnerships and relationships."

Adams said it's a myth that the increasing use of the Internet and other technologies to deliver education would result in lower costs or cheaper tuition. That's because the cost of employing top staff has grown so much, he said, and the days when professors were happy to drive to campus in a beat-up VW and teach for $3,000 a year are long gone.

Gorsuch said that if Barack Obama — the child of a Kenyan father — were to win next week's election, it could renew overseas interest in America as a land of educational opportunity and could open doors for U.S. students wanting to study abroad.

Nick Perry: 206-515-5639 or nperry@seattletimes.com