Vietnam hot market for U.S. colleges

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- Recruiters for two-year U.S. colleges are looking to Vietnam, the fastest-growing market for international students, a community college advocacy group says.

They're in Ho Chi Minh City this week in a recruitment tour organized by the American Association of Community Colleges, Wyoming's Sheridan College, one of the schools represented, told United Press International Thursday.

The tour is similar to one held there a year ago when about 700 students and their parents poured into a fancy Ho Chi Minh City hotel ballroom to learn about 23 two-year U.S. schools, USA Today reported.

Vietnamese students are the fastest-growing sector of students in U.S. colleges and universities, jumping 45 percent to 8,769 in the 2007-2008 school year, the latest data available, the newspaper said.

The worldwide increase averages 7 percent.

About 85 percent of visas for Vietnamese students are issued in Ho Chi Minh City, with most of these -- more than 5,000 -- going to students who studying a two-year colleges.

Nearly all students plan to later transfer to a four-year liberal arts college for two to three years to complete a bachelor's degree, the newspaper said.

They start at community colleges because these schools are more flexible about language requirements than four-year schools and don't require admissions test scores.

International students contribute more than $15.5 billion in tuition and living expenses to the U.S. economy, USA Today said.