The Increase of Wenzhou students on Union campus

By Brittany Fuentes | Published October 24, 2023

The number of international students from Wenzhou Kean University (WKU) has significantly increased with 165 Wenzhou students on the Union campus this semester.

Numbers depleted during COVID-19 with traveling restrictions making it difficult for students to travel between countries. 

Prior to COVID, Kean had the largest number of Wenzhou students with a group of 186 in the fall semester of 2019. Since 2021 the number has been steadily increasing and 125 of those students are new.  

Though there has been an increase in the number of students from Wenzhou, there are few students traveling to the Wenzhou campus. 

It is less popular for the Union students to study for a whole semester abroad at WKU because they have chosen to go to a local university while WKU students have decided to go to a different university outside of their town. 

The students in Wenzhou  choose to go to a university that is all English  speaking, they choose to go to a Western  university in China  so studying abroad is a popular choice for many of the students.

Another contributing factor is that all Wenzhou students who wish to study in the Union can do so because Kean Union (KU) offers every major that WKU has. At the same time, not every KU student can study at WKU because they don’t offer every major, only a select few.

The Center for International Studies at Kean works with partners at WKU, it’s a joint process between the Center for International Studies in Union and Wenzhou to make sure everything works well. 

Jessica Goldsmith Barzilay, the executive director of  Center for International Studies at Kean believes there has been a great desire to travel for some time but has  been unable to for quite some time and their interest has been piqued now more than ever. 

“We’ve got this great system, this great partnership, where we just make it easier so it’s not so hard to register, we make it easier and when students come here we offer them internships which is a big thing too. We keep improving our exchange,” says Barzilay.

Many Wenzhou students chose to study abroad in the US in hopes of gaining new experiences and learning to navigate the challenges of living in a new country in hopes it will help with their future endeavors. 

It also provides the students with a diverse student body which they do not get to witness or experience in the Wenzhou campus that is inhabited by a majority of Chinese students. 

Kaixin Zhu, a junior public relations major studying a semester at KU says, “Kean’s Wenzhou campus has a lot of Chinese students and there are different student groups between WKU and Kean USA. A lot of us have chosen to get a master’s degree while studying abroad and going to the exchange program at Kean is pretty interesting and it can prepare us for it.”

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