The University at Buffalo is bursting at the seams this fall and the largest ever student body ever is made up of a record number of international students.
UB's push since the late 1990s to recruit international students is paying off. This semester's new enrollees, including more than 1,300 graduate students, has increased the university's international enrollment to about 5,200, 17 percent of the student body.
Provost and Executive Vice President for student affairs Charles Zukoski says the students from nearly 80 countries are an indication of UB's reputation beyond Western New York.
"We are based in Buffalo...but we have this tremendous and global reach and people are coming to us because of the programs we're delivering," Zukosky told WBFO.
The largest number of new students are from India, China, and Korea, which Zukoski says enhances the university a great deal.
"We're interested in our domestic students and our international students getting to know one another and creating an understanding of what happens around the world. We have sort of a value we believe we are going to transmit to all of our students that is associated with them understanding the nature of the world we live in outside of the western New York, outside of the United States," Zukoski said.
Zukoski says this is good news for the local economy, with the students spending more and more money in local businesses.
"In Buffalo, we're very interested in increasing our population and bringing people in who are going to grow the economy. Bringing these students in, some of them are going to stay. Some of them will want to come back and do business here."