The University of Oregon is proud of its legacy. With 250,000 alumni, the institution has seen leaders emerging from its academic community who specialised in a diverse range of fields. This quality of instruction counts as one of Oregon’s strengths as it attracts a new generation of scholars from all over the world.
The University of Oregon is known for its exceptional variety of programs – from business to STEM – but, in the area of international education, its welcoming atmosphere to students from overseas makes it truly unique.
MSM Reporter spoke to Dr. Alfredo Varela, the university’s associate director of international recruitment, about the institution’s commitment to advancing academic excellence and its support for international students.
Academic excellence
The University of Oregon is proud of its legacy. With 250,000 alumni, the institution has seen leaders emerging from its academic community who specialised in a diverse range of fields. This quality of instruction counts as one of Oregon’s strengths as it attracts a new generation of scholars from all over the world.
The wide array of academic programs also enables students from overseas to build on their own competencies and be the best in their field, while gaining international exposure in the U.S.
Dr. Varela said: “We have a number of programs that are popular with our international students. We have programs in our business school, which attract a lot of our international students, particularly our sports marketing program and our marketing programs. We have a great psychology program in addition to our programs in biology, chemistry and other STEM sciences.”
Other popular courses include architecture, interior design and product design.
And while Oregon has robust business and science programs, it also welcomes international students who are interested in the arts and humanities. “We do get students interested in music, performance, and they come in and really excel and have the opportunity to build their skills while they’re here at the University of Oregon,” Dr. Varela said.
Commitment to global learning
A truly international education works in two major ways at Oregon: inbound students can immerse in the rich history of an American campus while outbound students can travel overseas and widen their horizons.
“For inbound students,” Dr. Varela said, “we feel that it’s really important to generate a diverse student body here on campus. And to that end, we want our international students to bring their backgrounds, their culture, their language, and share that with our students here on campus.”
Meanwhile, the university offers over 300 different study-abroad opportunities for U.S. students. “U.S. citizens who wish to go overseas can experience firsthand what it’s like to live and study at over 300 different places around the world,” he said.
Not every student has this opportunity, however. “For international students to be on campus, it really provides that opportunity for them to engage with domestic students, and it creates an atmosphere that we would not be able to create if we didn’t have [international] students here on campus,” Dr. Varela said.
“Both inbound and outbound students provide us the opportunity as an institution to give our students that added experience of interacting and developing networks that go beyond the U.S. and around the world.”
Integrating international students
Dr. Varela said the university is working hard to create that unique blend of culture and academic talent on campus by diversifying the student community and affording them the space to engage with one another.
“We want them to feel part of the global community of Ducks – that’s how we identify ourselves. We have alumni around the world, and I’ve had the opportunity to meet with some key alumni in various places,” he said.
This diversity of global talent is translating into a legacy of leadership in various fields.
“We have people who are in local government offices, the media; we have movie and television personalities. We have a lot of really well-known alumni who have succeeded in many different fields,” Dr. Varela said.
“We work hard to connect our current students with those [former] students, not only to give them a head start in terms of their networking opportunities, but also to create some kind of aspirational expectations [to let them know] that they can succeed in the same ways,” he said.
“We do this through our career services office. We just opened a couple of years ago a brand new facility dedicated to advising and career services. And from the very first time the students live on campus, they have the opportunity to begin building these networks, getting coaching, finding internships, and really preparing themselves in order to work towards the next step, which is finding a good job and then building on their profession.”
