Loosened travel and trade restrictions are making it easier for US colleges to launch recruiting efforts and establish exchange programs on Cuban soil,according to a recent Associated News report. Diplomatic relations between the two countries were officially renewed this month after a standoff lasting more than five decades.
Obstacles still exist, but admission offices at US schools are already planning new outreach efforts aimed at Cuban students, according to Mauro Guillen, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Joseph H. Lauder Institute — a research-and-teaching program devoted to management and international relations.
“Cuba has probably the highest educational standards in all of Latin America,” Guillen told the AP. “They have a relatively well-educated population and it would be wonderful to attract all of those students to the United States in big numbers.”
The Test of English as a Foreign Language — an exam required for international students seeking admission to many US colleges — was offered to Cubans by ETS (Educational Testing Service) for the first time in June.
Only four students sat for the exam, but many anticipate that number will grow in coming years. Cuba is home to roughly 1.5 million young people between the ages of 15 and 24.
“We expect the progress to mirror US-Cuba relations," Eileen Tyson, an executive director with ETS, told Education Week.
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