What's in a name? A lot, if you had asked Johnson State College and Lyndon State College in the US state of Vermont.

 

如果有人问美国佛蒙特州的约翰逊州立学院和林登州立学院，名字重要吗？它们会告诉你，非常重要。

 

The schools are now one, at least in name - Northern Vermont University - with two campuses 89 kilometers apart.

 

The name change was designed to attract foreign students willing to pay higher tuition. "University" just sounds better than "college".

 

NVU will welcome its first freshman¹ class in the fall of 2018.

 

Across the United States schools have been trying to step up to the surge in foreign students, especially Chinese students. Last year, 328,547 Chinese studied in the US, accounting² for 32 percent of all foreign students, according to the Institute of International Education.

 

But Vermont ranks low - 48th among the country's 50 states. Last year, a paltry³ 1,712 foreign students studied in Vermont, 39 percent of them Chinese.

 

Currently, Lyndon has eight international students, including five from China; Johnson State has two international students, one from the United Kingdom and one from Bermuda.

 

Last year, the board of trustees of the state college system voted unanimously to unify⁴ Johnson and Lyndon State - but keeping each school's campus separate - to save money and increase revenue.

点击收听单词发音