Foreign Students Aid Community Colleges : Education: Institutions are recruiting abroad because tuition is higher and fees go directly into their general funds instead of being redistributed by the state.

In an effort to raise additional money for their cash-strapped campuses, many California community colleges are recruiting foreign students, who provide added revenues because they pay higher fees.

To compete for these students, some schools are spending thousands of dollars on overseas recruiting trips, advertisements and college brochures. Despite the hefty cost, school officials believe their attempts to lure more foreign students are well worth the investment.

While California residents pay $13 per unit at the state’s 106 community colleges, international students are charged $124 per unit, which can add up to $3,600 a year for a normal class load, college officials say. And the college system’s trustees voted last month to raise the tuition for foreign students to $137 per unit beginning this summer.

Along with charging higher fees, colleges can also deposit the tuition fees generated from out-of-state residents directly into their general fund. This is unlike the money generated from California residents, which goes to the state, and is then disbursed to each campus according to student enrollment.

“We’re recruiting international students because it’s a good way to improve our resource base at a time when the state and county are reducing funds,” said Anthony Kohlenberger, director of the international center at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa. “But more importantly, we believe our students benefit by studying around students from all over the world.”

In 1991, there were 18,473 international students enrolled at California community colleges. Two years later, that figure had increased to 20,113 students, according to the most recent community college figures.

Although the goal of many international students is to graduate from a four-year college, many choose to attend a two-year school first because their English skills are weak and their financial resources scarce.

Pakistan native Mohammed Naeem Siddiqui said he enrolled at Los Angeles City College because he would not have been able to obtain a college degree in his native country.

“In Pakistan, there are a limited number of professional schools and a big population,” he said. “The competition is too high, so I had to move.”

The 23-year-old computer major first enrolled at the University of Kansas, but he disliked the school and left after about a month. He decided to come to Los Angeles on the advice of friends.

“Here, I’m not homesick at all,” he said. “No one says to me, ‘You’re an international student,’ because there are so many students here from other countries. I don’t feel different at all.”

Despite the enthusiasm for enrolling more foreign students, some educators say community colleges are losing sight of their underlying goal, which they believe is to educate students from the community.

“Business officers are making policy decisions,” said Rocky Barilla, executive director of the Community Colleges Assn., a branch of the California Teachers Assn. “If a school has to make a choice between teaching basic skills to community students or teaching pre-engineering to international students, I say they have to serve the community students.”

But college officials said the additional revenue generated by foreign students allows them to hire additional teachers and add classes, which benefits all students.

“Some say international students are taking seats from other students, but they’re actually helping everyone because they’re allowing us to add programs,” said Gordon Newman, administrative dean of admissions at Santa Monica College, where about 2,000 of the school’s 20,000 students come from other countries. “Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to operate without making drastic cuts.”

The key to building a successful international program is to make sure students are treated well when they arrive on campus, Newman said.

“You can’t just mainstream international students,” he said. “They come with unique problems, like culture shock. You have to have people on campus who know how to deal with these issues.”

Kohlenberger of Orange Coast added that many colleges are unprepared to assist foreign students once they arrive.

“If you’re going to increase the number of international students on your campus, you have to invest more money to hire staff to help them,” he said. “Otherwise, the program is going to fail.”

In 1989, officials at Orange Coast decided to start recruiting foreign students. Since then, the school’s international program has grown from 65 students to 540.

Although the school spends about $200,000 a year to run its international center and pay for recruiting advertisements, the school raises $2 million a year from the foreign students, Kohlenberger said.

The Los Angeles Community College District spends about $75,000 a year on overseas recruiting trips, college catalogues and advertisements to boost its international program, said Donald Culton, the program’s director.

Although the cost may seem high, Culton said, the district’s 2,500 foreign students contribute about $7 million annually to the nine colleges in the district.

“Recruiting more international students is a controversial issue at some campuses,” Culton said. “But since we’re such an international city in Los Angeles, it’s not as much an issue here. The number of foreign students is still relatively small, and we all recognize that this is money we’re getting that we wouldn’t otherwise have.”