Every year, first-year international students land in St. Louis and are dropped off in Webster Groves, their new home in a new country. It’s an event school officials get ready for every summer, preparing taxis and buses for students to get to campus safely and quickly.
This academic year, Webster University recruited the largest ever class of international students in its history, thanks to partnerships that increased its ability to enroll foreign students.
Since 2017, Webster has partnered with Global University Systems (GUS), an international network of higher-education institutions that helps students get bachelor’s and master’s degrees and English-language training. GUS operates across the globe with approximately 60 locations.
Subas Thapa is GUS’s regional manager and a representative for Webster University. Under the partnership, GUS representatives meet with prospective students and applicants on behalf of Webster.
“The recruitment number was small before I started recruiting students from Nepal for the U.S.A. campus,” said Thapa, who started working at GUS in May 2021.
Thapa also works with Alfa Beta, an education consultancy in Nepal that is also partnered with Webster. Alfa Beta helps students with things such as test preparation, study-abroad guidance, visa assistance and language proficiency.
On its website, Alfa Beta describes Webster as an international university “which guarantees excellent educational opportunities that prepare students for civic engagement and personal greatness.”
It continues to say Webster “is popular for sustaining a personalized approach to a worldwide, student-centered education through small classrooms, intimate interactions with teachers and staff and attention to student life,” making it an institution “dedicated to creating educational programs that integrate theory and practice, offer a global perspective, nurture creativity and cultivate a lifelong drive to learn and actively serve communities and the greater good.”
In the “Financials” section of Alfa Beta’s website, the average cost of tuition per year to attend Webster is listed as $24,300, while cost of living per year comes in at $13,000. In comparison, Webster’s website has full-time undergraduate tuition per year at $31,450, while university housing ranges from $3,250 to $6,200 per semester. Eleven majors are listed on Alfa Beta’s website, most relating to science or business, while the university’s website lists more than 160 majors.
In early February, Thapa spoke at an Alfa Beta event in Nepal titled, “Webster University Open Day,” focusing on informing students on the value of an American degree.
“We do regular school visits twice yearly via USEF-Nepal and events with our recruitment partners in various cities. We have 150-plus recruitment partners in Nepal,” Thapas said.
Samrat Ray Chaudhuri, assistant vice president for International Enrollment, says Webster mostly works with recruitment partners, including high school and college counselors, education agents, lead-generating companies, and government and non-governmental organizations such as the Education USA and IIE/Fulbright Scholarship Program.
“We try to promote across the world via our available resources and partners,” Chaudhuri said. “It is very common for U.S. universities to have a large number of international students from India and China due to the huge population and demand for U.S. higher education in these places.”
Avila University is the only other college in Missouri affiliated with a similar partnership agreement, working with GUS beginning in late 2023. Avila, located in Kansas City, currently has 27 international students enrolled out of a total student population of 1,307. Webster has 13,448 students, with one-third of them listed as international students.The majority of international students enrolled at Webster lists India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan as their home countries.
Chaudhuri says the university has been expecting and preparing for the giant boost.
“This means more faculty members to teach the courses, more off-campus housing options and so on and so forth,” Chaudhuri said. “We did plan this for the past several years.”
Chaudhuri sees an even brighter future for Webster’s international student enrollment.
“Most major analysts of the industry see international education as a future for the U.S. and Webster is a significant player in this,” Chaudhuri said. “So we are very optimistic of a sustained future.”
Share this post
