New Mexico university to offer tuition discount to Mexican students
New Mexico State University announced Monday that it would offer discounted tuition to Mexican students in a bid to boost revenue amid a budget crisis. Tuition will cost about 1.5 times the amount paid by New Mexico residents, but half the amount paid by out-of-state students.
“We have an enrollment challenge here, that is public knowledge, and decreasing demographics,” Dr. Cornell Menking, NMSU's associate provost for international and border programs told the Albuquerque Journal. “We look at our competitors and see the advantages of close collaboration with Mexico and recruiting in Mexico. To put it bluntly, we felt we were not keeping up with our competitors in the region like Arizona and UTEP [University of Texas at El Paso].”
Located near the southern U.S. border, Mexico already ranks as one of NMSU's largest sources of international students, with 175 to 200 Mexican students enrolled annually. In addition to Mexico, the university will target other international markets, including China, to expand its graduate student population amid the budget crisis.
“NMSU has a lot to offer students from Mexico, and we know these students have a lot to offer us in terms of their backgrounds, experiences and diversity,” said NMSU Chancellor Garrey Carruthers in a statement.