106th Newsletter - Holiday Edition!

Welcome to the Holiday edition of the InternationalStudent.com Newsletter. This month we are showcasing our 2007 Travel Contest Winner along with lots of the usual goodies!

Also - if you have a fun site you use or like, send us an email and we might highlight it next month for you.

Have a great holiday season!

Ross Mason

Editor, InternationalStudent.com

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At the tail-end of last month we closed our annual travel video contest after we were bombarded with entries from all corners of the world. We would like to thank all those that submitted entries and we are sorry that we could not get everyone we received online.

Judging the contest was even harder this year, as we received so many entries of such a high standard - however there could only be one winner and this year it was Shani Gur. Her video, "A Trip to Papa", is a beautiful short film chronicling one Israeli woman's desire to scour Russia for the father she left behind 16 years before. We are currently navigating international monetary rules trying to wire her prize money to Moscow!

Our second and third prize winners and runner-up, Nabiha Khan, Brett Ralstad and Sarah Millman, were also fantastic entries showing each person's desire to travel and study abroad in a foreign country. You can see their entries, along with Shani's winning entry on our contest webpage at: http://www.internationalstudent.com/contest/

Congratulations to all the winners, and be sure to look out for next year's contest which will be even bigger and better again!

Do you want to open your mind and broaden your horizons? Want to take a science course that will actually cost you nothing - and do it online? Well now you can - the Education-Portal.com has created a list of the top 10 online science courses that you can take for free. That is right, you pay nothing to learn and can do it anywhere in the world. Have fun!

http://education-portal.com/articles/10_Universities_Offering_Free_Science_Courses_Online.html

As we prepare to flip our calendars to 2008, it's time to choose where you want to study in the USA... And you'd better hurry if you want to enroll for classes starting in late August / early September! The U.S. Journal of Academics features an exclusive list of the top U.S. universities, four-year liberal arts colleges, community colleges, English as a Second Language programs, youth programs, and summer schools. (Students are not required to register or pay for this valuable service.)

Learn more: http://www.USjournal.com/

Numbers of International Students Increasing Dramatically

On November 12, 2007, the Institute of International Education published its annual Open Doors report, showing the first significant growth in the number of international students coming to the US since the downturn which came as a fallout of the events of September 11, 2001. The number of international students in the US increased 3.2% to 582,984, while the number of newly-enrolled international students on US campuses increased by 10%, indicating further growth in the coming years.

Many in US higher education have been pushing hard for visa reform and for stronger international recruitment efforts, and many feel that these efforts are paying off. According to Allan E. Goodman, President and CEO of the Institute of International Education, "Vigorous efforts at the national, state and campus levels have combined to produce this rebounding of international student enrollments. Given increased global competition for talent, as well as expanded higher education options in many of the leading sending countries, America needs to continue its proactive steps to insure that our academic doors remain wide open, and that students around the world understand that they will be warmly welcomed."

The top three sending countries, India, China and South Korea, each saw substantial increases, and the University of Southern California, with 7,115 international students, maintained its position of hosting the most international students of any US school.

This rebound in US enrollment comes at a time when overall international education is booming, with estimates of over 2.5 million students in total studying outside their home country.

Visit the Open Doors Press Release for more information.

With a database of more than 10,000 schools teaching 88 languages in 115 countries, “The Language Course Finder” features a language course search engine with an extensive range of search criteria. An essential skill in today’s world, the English language is the key to international business. English is also a language of leisure and one that often unites people from different countries. When it comes to destinations, you can find English language schools in a wide range of English-speaking countries across the world.

To find the right English course, “The Language Course Finder” offers you the opportunity to search for language courses according to your personal criteria (e.g., location, course type, group size, accommodation, supplementary activities…)

Click here to find your English course now and go international

https://www.internationalstudent.com/learn-english/search/