In the 2014-15 school year, Colorado State University has the largest international student population the campus has ever seen.

As of this semester,  1,840 international students are enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs, compared to a total of 1,506 enrolled in 2013-14. In addition, there are another 300 students studying English through programs like INTO. 

“I knew we would have a big increase [in international students], but it’s bigger than I expected,” said Mark Hallett, director of International Student and Scholar Services.

The Office of International Programs, with help from the recent presence of INTO, have been doing a lot of recruiting this year. This included expanding on partnerships with universities in China and Vietnam by recruiting at high schools affiliated with those universities. They have also partnered with the Brazilian government, which has brought an influx of students from Brazil on campus.

“We’ve be doing a lot more than we ever did before,” Hallett said. “We have tapped into a global network of recruitment through our partnership with INTO. I think that has created more awareness about CSU around the world.”

After running for two years at CSU, INTO has been able to make more recruitment efforts. Their organization has a few programs for international students, including their Global Pathway Programs, which helps guide international students through their first year of courses, so they can be full time students their second year.

“Our pathway program has increased two-fold,” said Amanda Zimmerman, admissions manager at INTO.

This year, INTO has 536 students enrolled into their programs. The Chinese student population has increased by 100 students to about 500 students now. Altogether, CSU has a record number of international students this year, counting in to over 2,100 students. Most of these students are from regions from the Middle East and Asia. INTO has plans to focus more on Russia and Eastern Europe in the next year and start more recruitment efforts in India, Pakistan and the South American region.

“We have made it pretty clear, we don’t want to have a lopsided international population,” Hallett said. “For us and having the international students here, we want to go beyond the budget and ask what is true diversity?”

Ha Ta, a senior economics student, enrolled at CSU this year to finish out her fourth year of schooling through the University’s partnership with Foreign Trade University in Vietnam.

“There are 40 Vietnamese students on campus this year,” Ta said. “But, it’s been really easy connecting with other international students and American students. I don’t want to go back to Vietnam.”

Collegian Diversity Beat Amy Borngrebe can be reached at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @Aborncollegian.