Maine high schools recruiting international students to offset declining revenues might soon see an influx of Ukrainians escaping the civil war.
Bruce Lindberg, a former headmaster at Lee Academy, said Tuesday he signed contracts last week with three Ukrainian recruiting agencies to send students to Washington Academy, after he met with the recruiters at an international student conference in Vancouver last week. The part-time Washington Academy recruiter said he expects the contracts will draw Ukrainian students to the East Machias school in September.
“Right up front I asked them for their motivation, and essentially their answer was safety for their children,” Lindberg said Tuesday. “One of the ladies actually broke down in tears as she was telling me about that.”
Fellow international student recruiter Mel MacKay, head of school at John Bapst Memorial High School, said he hasn’t yet had Ukrainian students apply to attend the Bangor-based private academy, but he thinks Lindberg’s assessment is accurate.
“I have heard the same thing that Bruce reports,” said MacKay, who also attended the Vancouver event. “The European boarding schools in places like Switzerland have had significant numbers of students from Russia and the Ukraine and beyond — all the former Russian [communist bloc] satellites. Many of those former Soviet Union countries are not all wealthy places, but they are developing or developed, so there is potential.”
Separatist rebellions fueled by cross-border propaganda from Russia erupted in eastern Ukraine after Moscow-backed Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovich was toppled by mass street protests in Kiev in February. In five months of upheaval, which caused the worst stand-off between Russia and the West since the Cold War, Russia also seized Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, further drawing Western criticism of Russia President Vladimir Putin.
“One of the things that I heard recently is that schools should expect an influx not only from the Ukraine but also from Russia itself. The reason is simple: disaffection with Putin,” MacKay added. “There is a recognition that the Russian situation is also characterized by economic and political uncertainty. [But] Russia has prosperity from the energy sector and other areas, and that translates to the ability to send your kids overseas.”
“There are still some pockets of very wealthy families that can send students to the U.S.” from the Ukraine despite the fighting, said Chris McGary, assistant head of school for external affairs at Foxcroft Academy.
McGary said he opted not to go to Kiev on a recruiting trip in April after the U.S. State Department advised against nonessential travel to the Ukraine because of the fighting.
With each student paying tuition of $27,000 to $38,000, international recruitment has become a big business for the state’s seven private academies since Lindberg essentially pioneered the business of recruiting Chinese students on a large scale at Lee Academy. That school started with 49 Chinese internationals in 2008. Since then, Lee Academy has had at least 75 Chinese students attending annually.
Maine’s academies have 50 to 120 international students annually who each contribute $4,000 to $8,000 to their local economies in addition to the tuition funds, Lindberg said.
“The Chinese market is still the top market for international students,” McGary said, adding that he didn’t expect any other country to displace China in that area anytime soon.
Seeing vast tuition revenues, an end to student population downturns and a chance to diversify student populations, several public schools also have begun recruiting students, but in far smaller numbers — usually no more than 20. Orono High School reported 17 international students in 2013. High schools in Millinocket, Kennebunk and Presque Isle also have taken stabs at or maintain international programs.
It might never displace China, but the Ukraine could become a fertile area for high school recruits, MacKay said Tuesday. Since the 18th Century, Ukrainians and Russians have had a close relationship with English and French boarding schools, and the Ukraine is known for having high academic standards, he said.
“I don’t think there are any issues for American schools taking in Ukrainian students,” Lindberg said. “If anything, I think it would be a great humanitarian move” to help get students away from the fighting.