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Hindrawan part of education mission
Joseph Hindrawan was a member of the Obama administration’s first education trade mission to Indonesia and Vietnam. Photo: DOUGLAS LEVERE
Joseph J. Hindrawan, associate vice provost for international education and director of international enrollment management, joined colleagues from 55 other U.S. colleges and universities last month on the Obama administration’s first education services trade mission to Indonesia and Vietnam.
The mission visited Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi with Francisco J. Sanchez, undersecretary of commerce for international trade, U.S. Department of Commerce, to explore opportunities for additional international student recruitment and partnerships with higher education institutions in these countries.
More than 20,000 students from Indonesia and Vietnam currently attend U.S. colleges and universities, and although UB currently enrolls only 46 students from Vietnam and 23 from Indonesia, Hindrawan says UB is working to increase enrollment from both countries.
The U.S. Office of International Trade Administration notes that Indonesia and Vietnam are two key export markets for U.S. companies. Therefore, expanding educational opportunities for their students provides direct benefits to American companies doing business with these critical markets. But international education also has many direct benefits for the U.S., the colleges that host the students and the communities in which the colleges are located.
“We often think only of manufactured goods as exports,” Hindrawan says, “but education and training are among America’s most valuable exports and services. In the last academic year alone, tuition and living expenses from international students and their families added $19 billion to the U.S. economy, and $224 million to the Western New York economy, of which UB’s share was $93 million.”
One benefit of bringing students from these nations to Buffalo, he says, is that when they graduate and return home, they are likely to become part of a growing, educated middle class with strong ties to the U.S. and Western New York.
“With their understanding and appreciation of our city and our university,” Hindrawan says, “they are likely to continue to visit and do business here, as well as to support future UB educational initiatives here and in their countries.”
Stephen Dunnett, vice provost for international education, says UB is pleased and proud that Hindrawan was selected to join the prestigious trade mission. “It is an indication of Joe’s outstanding success in building international enrollment at UB. Currently, UB enrolls approximately 4,000 international students and ranks 12th among all institutions of higher education in the United States in terms of percentage of enrollment that is international,” Dunnett says.
Besides UB, the mission included representatives of other New York state colleges and universities: Columbia University, Baruch College (CUNY), Hofstra University, Stony Brook University and Daemen College in Buffalo.
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