As part of its mission to produce global citizens, the University has increased its efforts to advertise itself abroad, especially to prospective students who could boost the international presence on Grounds. During the past year, new student initiatives also have been created to inform prospective international students about the University. At the same time, the University has expanded existing programs that seek to engage international alumni and strengthen their ties with each other, prospective students and parents. These efforts are expected to give the University a more positive image and greater name recognition outside the United States.
The challenges of advertising abroad\nIn general, the University does not seem to be as well known abroad as it is in the United States.
"Certainly we're not going to be as well known as the Ivies," Associate Dean of Admissions Parke Muth said. "That's true not just internationally; that's true all over the U.S."
This initial disparity in name recognition may arise from the fact that, understandably, people outside the United States do not know as much about U.S. educational institutions as Americans do, Global Student Council President Batkhuu Dashnyam said. As a result, many people around the world may only be familiar with the most famous U.S. colleges and universities.
The University's lower name recognition abroad also may stem in part from its position in international rankings. In the 2008 edition of the Times Higher Education Supplement rankings, the University is ranked 96th.
"The problem is some of other national peer institutions [rank higher]," Dashnyam said. "[University of] Michigan was ranked 18th, [New York University] was ranked 40th and Boston University was at 46. [These universities] on the national ranking scale are below us, so it raises a question [as to] why this happens."
The lower rankings happen in part because systems such as the Times Higher Education Supplement and the Shanghai Jiao Tong rankings place more of an emphasis on factors that are important to graduate education and research, said George Stovall, director of the University's office of institutional assessment and studies, which is responsible for submitting data to U.S. News & World Report's college rankings.
One of the main differences between the Times Higher Education Supplement and U.S. News & World Report rankings is that 40 percent of the THES ranking is based on a survey of peer institutions' opinions about each university, whereas with U.S. News, the peer review only accounts for 25 percent of the ranking, Stovall said.
"That is one of the primary things that knocks U.Va.'s ranking down," Stovall said. "That's an indication that we are not as well known outside the U.S. as our peers are, because we score very well in the peer review in U.S. News."
In addition, about 10 percent of the THES ranking takes into account the number of international students and faculty at each university. In this category, as well, the University does not perform as well as some peer institutions, Stovall said.
The Shanghai Jiao Tong ranking, meanwhile, looks heavily at the amount of research conducted at a university, as well as the number of publications and citations including that university's work, Stovall said.
"The reason we don't rank as well in those two [systems] is that many things that are in the U.S. News rankings, [which] focus mainly on undergraduate students, are not in those rankings," Stovall said. For example, factors such as the quality of the students selected in the admissions process and graduation rates are not considered in the THES and Shanghai Jiao Tong rankings, Stovall said.
In addition to rankings, however, the University's international appeal may suffer because of the different tastes of international parents and students, Muth said.
"A lot of parents - if they're going to send their sons and daughters - to the U.S. tend to look more to the things they perceive as sending their children to ultimate success, so liberal arts is sometimes a harder sell internationally," Muth said.
While the Commerce School's high ranking may appeal to several of these parents, the University also hopes to communicate the idea that liberal arts can prepare students for success after graduation, Muth said.
Spreading the University's name\nThe admissions office, Global Student Council and the office of engagement are all involved in the effort to increase the University's name recognition abroad.
The admissions office, for example, has traveled around the world for a number of years. This past summer, Muth traveled to eight cities in China and he will visit Central and South America in less than three weeks. In addition, the admissions office also sends a representative to Europe, and depending on the year and budget, there is sometimes a person visiting the Middle East as well, Muth said.
Part of the University's strategy is to visit not only international schools abroad but also national ones whose student bodies consist mostly of citizens of the nation in question.
One of the most effective ways to spread the University's name, however, is to incorporate parents and alumni as well as current students into the school's publicity efforts, Muth said.
"I don't think it's any different internationally than it is anywhere else," Muth said. "If you have students here who love being here and you can communicate that back home, that's more important than what I can do or what anyone else can do."
One of the programs sponsored by Global Student Council's external division, therefore, is the high school visits program, which was started last year by Karissa Nanetta, GSC's current vice president for external affairs. This program encourages international students to talk to high schools in their home countries whenever they visit those countries, Dashnyam said.
"We worked closely with the U.Va. admissions office," Dashnyam said. "They trained these students, gave them brochures, even helped them to prepare their speeches."
GSC's internal division, meanwhile, seeks to serve as a bridge between current international students and the University community as a whole, Dashnyam said.
"We try to forge strong relationships between current international students and the University, so that once they graduate they will feel a sense of loyalty - a sense belonging to an institution that has given them the keys to their success," Dashnyam said.
This alumni connection is particularly important because the University increasingly relies on private funds to support its overseas publicity efforts, Dashnyam and Muth said. In contrast, the Office of Admissions feels an obligation to only use state funds to visit Virginia schools and fulfill the University's public education mandate, Muth said.
GSC also hopes to make international students feel like they are at home when they visit the University and Charlottesville. For example, GSC members will frequently talk to their international peers about how they can become more involved in various student groups and leadership positions, Dashnyam said.
The past matters, too\nAlthough many of the University's current efforts are intended to create loyal generations of future graduates, the University also is increasing its efforts to connect with current international alumni.
The Office of Engagement uses the U.Va. Clubs program to help alumni and parents around the globe network with each other, said Darci Spuck, assistant director for regional engagement.
"We have networking events and social events also, anything from pub nights in London to picnics," Spuck said.
In addition, the office assisted with hosting more than eight student send-off parties outside the United States.
"For the events that were held in Beijing and Shanghai, both of these events received press [coverage,]" Spuck said. "Our alumni worked with the staff at the University to submit press releases, and our event in Beijing hit 650 Web sites. Our event in Shanghai had five representatives from the media attend our event, so in turn that's promoting the name of the University."
In addition to its alumni and student send-off events, the Office of Engagement seeks to publicize events where University faculty and administrators speak in international locations, Spuck said.
Muth and Spuck also have been working to host more admitted student parties in international locations.
"Many international students don't have an opportunity to visit, so this is a chance to visit and get questions answered about life at U.Va. and coming to University in the U.S.," Spuck said.
Currently, the Office of Engagement often announces its events through e-mail, but it can still be a challenge to publicize its networking events to international alumni, Spuck said. Once alumni hear about the events, however, they tend to be eager to participate and often contact other alumni to publicize the event, Spuck said.
The Office of Engagement aims to develop relationships with student groups on Grounds both to develop more extensive networks abroad and to foster connections with international students who will be alumni someday, Spuck said.
Another advantage to alumni networking may be that successful alumni can one day be identified with the University, Dashnyam said.
"If [alumni] do really well at their profession, the employer can easily [associate] their performance with their education," Dashnyam said, adding that the University can build on its international reputation by associating itself with famous alumni.
Signs of a greater presence abroad?\nSo far, the University's attempts to network with international alumni have increased this year, Spuck said, citing the fact that her position was created only last November. The promotional events that will be held this coming year are expected to be better organized, as the University is now prepared to give more infrastructural support and funding to them, and there will likely be more events held to begin with, Spuck said.
Though it is difficult to generalize across schools and departments, many research projects and other programs seem to reflect a growing level of international collaboration with the University, said Dudley Doane, director of the international studies office.
"I think [international collaboration is] becoming of greater interest to the University as an institution," Doane said.
Collaboration, however, is largely faculty-driven, rather than a University-mandated process, Doane said. A professor in a particular department merely needs to undertake a research project and work with someone in another country for "international collaboration" to take place.
"This is no longer exotic; it's common," Doane said. "And in fact I think one could argue that in some fields, to maintain one's position, to remain on the cutting edge, one is going to have to work with colleagues overseas just because of the quality of work being done around the world."
Many other projects, however, affect the University's contact with faculty around the world, Doane said. For example, the Center for Politics' Global Perspectives in Democracy program is expected to facilitate relationships with other institutions, and the University's study abroad programs are already seen as a means of maintaining professional contacts and collaborations around the world, Doane said.
The long-term existence of some of these programs may contribute to the University's name recognition in a manner that builds upon itself, Doane said.
"These organizations are large, complex and multi-layered - they've developed over time, and these programs have developed over time," Doane said. "I think [the University's relations abroad] may be richer because of that, actually."
Changes in the University's name recognition also depend greatly on the region in question and the population being examined, Doane said.
"We used to talk about no name recognition in China," Doane said. "This year we're hot in China, at least among prospective undergraduates. And the world is a big place, and we're better known in some places than others."
Doane said he believes the University is doing well in East Asia, South Asia and Western Europe, but admitted that it remains relatively unknown in some other areas of the world. But overseas alumni seem to be becoming more active, Doane said, and their communities are no longer composed mostly of expatriates from the U.S.
The University also continues to receive publicity from specific high-profile events, such as President John T. Casteen, III's selection as keynote speaker for Shanghai Jiao Tong's third annual World-Class Universities conference in November.
Other factors that tend to impact the popularity of any University include funding for graduate programs and quality of life for faculty and students who may be moving in with families, Doane said.
The overall brand of the University, meanwhile, will still be affected by factors such as prospective students' perception of the culture and sense of community on Grounds, Doane said.
The limits of global publicity\nEven if the University becomes more visible to international students, there are still factors that may prevent them from attending.
One of the biggest reasons that admitted international students choose not to attend the University is the lack of need-based financial aid for international students, Dashnyam said. International students, therefore, have to pay $40,000 to $50,000 each year to attend the University.
"One statistic really boggled my mind," Dashnyam said. "More than half the families [of international students who declined admission] couldn't break the $75,000 [income] mark, whereas with their American counterparts, only 20 percent couldn't break [this] mark."
Finally, the University's efforts to spread its name abroad can only increase the number of international students to a certain point.
"Thomas Jefferson always intended U.Va. to be a public institution, so in that regard U.Va. will always try to maintain that ratio [of in-state to out-of-state students,]" Dashnyam said. "So even if it's very likely that the pool of international applicants may rise, I don't see [the proportion of international students at the University] exceeding 15 percent at the most. What we want to see in the future is more high-caliber applicants applying to U.Va., but at the same time [students from] more countries applying to U.Va"
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