More cultures than ever before will be represented in Binghamton University’s student body this year as the school welcomes a record number of new international students.

Though fall 2008 enrollment numbers have not yet been finalized, BU is en route to set an all-time high international student registration that will exceed 2,000 students, according to Ellen Badger, the director of International Student and Scholar Services. More than 600 of these students are newly enrolled at BU, as opposed to the 531 new international students who were newly registered in fall 2007.

“We have been aggressively recruiting international students for the past five years,” said Brian Hazlett, director of Undergraduate Recruitment. “We spend an average of about six weeks a year in Asia, we travel to Puerto Rico, Turkey, India.”

According to Badger, the increase in international enrollment has also been caused by BU’s increasingly competitive reputation.

“Our reputation overseas is growing, in part due to University efforts to recruit the best students worldwide and the excellent rankings we have received in national publications that are well advertised worldwide,” Badger said.

BU has recently been ranked as one of the top 50 best public universities by U.S. News and World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges 2009.” The University has also been hailed as the Premier Public University of the Northeast by Fiske Guide to Colleges and has received seven national awards for internationalization.

“We’re seeing growth in the number of new students from countries that have traditionally sent large numbers of students to Binghamton,” Badger said. “This includes more than 100 new international students from India and nearly 100 new international students from China.”

“For India, the number of graduate students has increased. For China, there are larger numbers of both undergraduate and graduate students,” she added.

The rising influx of international students will have positive effects on the Binghamton community, according to both Badger and Hazlett.

“The benefit is that an international reputation will help any BU student when they go look for their first job, or look for grad school,” Hazlett said. “The importance of globalization is key here.”

The international student enrollment, study abroad programs, foreign language study and other offerings at BU help to “enhance the international competence of all Binghamton University students, making them better informed about and more prepared to engage the world,” Badger said.

According to Badger, the low cost of living, opportunity for on campus employment and low fees also play a large role in attracting international students to Binghamton.

“Most international students do have a very positive feeling,” Hazlett said. “The location is something they like — they like that they can get to New York City in three hours, Philly in three hours, Washington in four hours.”

According to the responses collected by the Office of International Student and Scholar Services, international students truly do enjoy their stays in Binghamton. One student who responded said the people at BU were nice and helped to make the stay more comfortable.

Sura Khaled Alqudah, an international student who is in the industrial engineering department, came to Binghamton through the recommendation of her husband, who is already a student at BU.

“He said it’s a really wonderful department and very useful, and the staff is really good,” she said.

“Everything is exciting and I’m really having fun,” Alqudah added.

Efforts to make Binghamton a more international university will not be halting with this recent success. One initiative the University has set for the next year, Hazlett said, is for international students presently at BU to write to students abroad about their experience, so there is more of a “personalized outreach.”