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Sandburg plans to up international enrollment through agreement with WIU

The presidents of Carl Sandburg College and Western Illinois University signed an agreement today to increase admission of international students at the two schools.

Sandburg President Dr. Lori Sundberg said seeking international students — something community colleges do not traditionally prioritize — can help combat declining enrollment.

“It brings that global feel to our students and it brings diversity into the campus,” she said, “much more than what we can get just from our district alone, so its important to us on a couple of levels. This program helps us because we’re not very experienced in international recruitment. Western obviously has a great deal of experience in that area.”

WIU Executive Director Dr. Richard Carter said the agreement better enables Sandburg to recruit international students, even on conditional admission, through Western’s English as a Second Language programs.

Western President Dr. Jack Thomas said the university has more than 500 international students and he’d like to see that number reach 1,000.

“Diversity is one of our main goals,” Thomas said. “It has been for a number of years and this really helps.”

Sundberg says nine or 10 international students attend Sandburg now and the school has a goal of 100.

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