The International Character of the Columbia Community

Columbia is a magnet for scholars and students from around the world. The University ranks second among 2,000 American colleges and universities in the enrollment of international students.

Columbia hosts nearly 10,000 international students, interns, scholars, and accompanying family members from more than 140 different countries. The top five countries sending students to Columbia are China, India, South Korea, Canada, and France. In terms of scholars, the countries most highly represented are China, Japan, Italy, France, and Germany. Three-quarters of international students at Columbia are enrolled on the graduate or professional level.

• More than 1,300 international students are enrolled in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
  
  
• Columbia hosts 107 student Fulbright scholars.
  
  
• Engineering, public affairs, business, and the social sciences are the most popular fields of study among international students at Columbia.
  
  
• Columbia has more than 2,400 international faculty, researchers, visiting scholars, and scientists.
  
  

Global Studies
The University expresses its international character not only in the diverse, multinational composition of its population, but also in its efforts to make the curriculum more global. The Committee on Global Thought and the Task Force on Undergraduate Education both address the questions of globalization of curricula.

Read more about the Committee on Global Thought.>
Read more about the Task Force on Undergraduate Education. >

World Leaders Forum
Launched in 2003, the World Leaders Forum is an annual University-wide initiative that helps realize Columbia’s commitment to serving as a center for public discussion and debate on the large economic, political, social, and cultural questions of our time.

View slide show of world leaders at Columbia.

Columbia is home to almost a dozen regional and other institutes that examine global issues. The Earth Institute Columbia's Earth Institute leads numerous international efforts to mobilize science and technology to building a sustainable future, particularly for the world’s poor. Its initiatives range from expanding health care to forecasting seasonal climate fluctuations. In 2004, it launched the Millennium Villages Projects to work toward early successes in achieving the U.N. Millennium Development Goals through a proven integrated approach to sustainable development. To learn more about these initiatives and others, visit the Earth Institute Web site. The Institute for African Studies In October 2007, the Institute for African Studies—Columbia’s central forum and resource for Africa-centered academic research, program development, and local, national, and international dialogue and action on Africa—celebrated its re-opening under the direction of Mamadou Diouf, a renowned West African scholar and historian. Visit the Institute for African Studies Web site. > Find out more about Columbia’s regional institutes at the School for International and Public Affairs Web site.

In 2005, twenty presidents of prominent universities around the world endorsed a statement of guarantee that their campuses would be refuges for open debate and freedom of speech. Columbia convened the inaugural meeting of this Global Colloquium of University Presidents, co-hosted by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and President Bollinger.