CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — More than 5,200 students from China attend the University of Illinois campus in Champaign-Urbana and local businesses are taking notice.
Libby Tyler is Urbana’s economic development director. She tells The (Champaign) News-Gazette that the increase in international students has “definitely fueled a lot of development in Campustown and elsewhere.”
Champaign-Urbana Economic Development Corp. executive director Craig Rost says development officials see it positively. He says Asian students have spending power.
However critics complain that UI recruits the students overseas to bring in more tuition dollars and that harms students from Illinois.
Illinois’ 5,200 Chinese students make up just less than half of the school’s overall international student population of about 10,800 — the third largest in the U.S. behind New York University and the University of Southern California.
