Sponsored students on the rise

To fulfill their dreams of enrolling at ELI, typical students scrimped and saved their pennies, often with the help of their parents, until there was enough in their piggy bank to fund their great adventure. These days, on the other hand, there are a growing number of students who reach ELI by a different road: sponsorship.

In ELI’s fiscal year 2006-2007, the enrollment of 41% of the student body was underwritten by ministries of education and other government agencies, universities, and corporate or nongovernmental organizations. A portion of that figure represents participants in separate, specially designed programs (see “Special Programs”). An equally significant number of students were funded to study in the regular intensive English program. Front-running underwriters in this category were the Saudi Ministry of Health and Education, sponsoring 49 students, the Turkish Ministry of Education (26), the United Arab Emirates government (12), and the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (11). Also of note were two Fulbright scholars, at ELI to master their academic English skills before tackling university studies.

The trend continues in the current fiscal year. In the September-October 2007 session, 139 sponsored students were in attendance from ten different countries and four continents.

“These statistics indicate two important trends,” said ELI director Scott Stevens.

“First, increasingly, many countries at both the government and private sector levels are realizing the need to invest in the English capacity of their citizens and employees. Corporations see the need to have a skilled workforce to keep them competitive in dealing with global, English-speaking partners. Foreign governments see a similar virtue in English training, but they also see English as the gateway to education and to further economic development and diversification,” he explained.

“Second, these numbers indicate the extent of trust the University of Delaware ELI enjoys among sponsoring agencies, who seek out programs with the highest academic quality and the best student services.”   • SP