Fewer foreign students are choosing the United States as a place to get their higher education.

The enrollment of International students at SF State has dropped by 7.3 percent since last fall, according to a statistical summary released this week by the Office of International Programs (OIP).

"Most universities since Sept. 11, 2001 have experienced a decrease in International student enrollment," said Coordinator of International Student Services, Jay Ward.

"Since then, our government has not really been very International student friendly," Ward said. "Many International students feel that the U.S. is no longer the place to study and they basically began to look at other English speaking countries [to get their higher education]."

Ward pointed out that the decrease is also due to more competition overseas for International students, lack of recruiting and budget cuts.

But some are still choosing the U.S. to get their higher education.

SF State has 286 new International students enrolled this fall and some of them share their experience with [X] Press Online.

Raj Khadka, who got here about two months ago from Nepal to get his masters in Social Work, is one of them.

"This experience will help me a lot in my future and I plan to go to my country and work for the Nepal people," Khadka said.

"San Francisco is a great place for [getting an] education, especially for social work because of its diversity."

Anudama Sharma, 21, a Computer Science major, decided to come here instead of England to get her higher education.

"I chose San Francisco because it has a huge international population," Sharma said. "I will be getting an experience by not only Americans, but people from all over the world."

Likewise Khadka, Sharma plans to go back to her country, India, to help others.

"India is not a very rich country and it needs a lot of help," Sharma said.

"When we come here, we learn many things that we could implement and contribute to our country as much as possible."

Amouk Bachman, 24, got a scholarship to study in Sidney, Australia, but decided to come to San Francisco after meeting her Australian boyfriend, who lives in the city.

"I decided to come to San Francisco for several reasons; the beautiful city with its dynamic history, the different culture, the diversity of people at SFSU and love," Backman said.

"My main reason to be here is love, but I always want to travel and go abroad to discover different cultures," Backman said. "I was also sick of the Dutch's [being] small minded."

SF State has 2,016 International students who represent 94 countries. Japan has been the first of the top ten countries list since fall 2004.

Ward said SF State's Administration is aware of this issue and for the first time in five years has given a recruitment budget to OIP.

"We have a plan in place that the University has endorsed," Ward said. "We hope overtime this situation will change."

The number of International students dropped by 2.4 percent in 2003/2004, according to the Open Doors annual report on international academic mobility.