SLIPPERY ROCK — Slippery Rock University is working on bringing in more international students.

Philip Way, provost and vice president for academic affairs, said increasing diversity on campus is a main reason for this.

“We care deeply about diversity and people being culturally aware of what’s going on in the world,” Way said.

He said about 25 percent of SRU students go overseas sometime during their time in school. Bringing more students from different countries will help the remaining students get a more diverse experience.

One area of focus is China, with its increasing economic growth.

Way said students from China will make up about 30 percent of SRU’s international students this year.

“It’s a growing market for us,” Way said.

In May, SRU signed three agreements with Xi-an Fanyi University in China.

One agreement is for a master of arts in English, a second is for a bachelor of science in hospitality, event management and tourism and the third is for a bachelor of science in business administration, to be followed by a master of business administration.

In late winter through May, 10 students from Nanjing University in China came to SRU to study in the College of Business, Information and Social Sciences, studying hospitality and English as a second language.

Way said there will be another group from Nanjing coming to SRU in January.

SRU also has signed agreements with two universities in Sri Lanka. It signed a faculty and student exchange program with the University of Peradeniya and signed a “2+2” agreement with ANC Education.

The first agreement will allow professors and students from each institution to visit for a semester or so. Way said several SRU geology professors are interested in going to Sri Lanka to study its unusual geology.

The second agreement would allow students in Sri Lanka, who mainly are interested in science, to spend two years with ANC and then two years at SRU. He said some students also want to spend all four years at SRU.

Way said the agreement with ANC is ready for the fall semester, but said the agreement with Peradeniya still needs some work. Representatives from Peradeniya are expected to come to SRU in August to do that.

He said about seven students from Sri Lanka, some from ANC and some who are not from there, are expected to attend SRU in the fall semester.

“They’ll be here in just over a month,” Way said.

He noted there have been about 100 students from Sri Lanka who have gone to SRU over the past few decades.

“So, we have an alumni network there,” Way said.

SRU also is working on agreements with Vietnamese schools.

Way said he and other delegates from SRU visited Vietnam last year as a part of a program run by the Institute of International Education. While there, he said he saw opportunities for agreements.

One proposal would have Vietnamese professors obtain certificates for teaching online classes. Another proposal is expected to be similar to the agreement with ANC Education and focus on business, science and tourism and hospitality.

He said SRU officials are planning a trip to Turkey in the fall. SRU officials also are planning a trip to Sri Lanka in January and will follow that up with the visit to India with about seven or eight other State System of Higher Education universities.

SRU has 150 to 200 international students out of 8,600 total students.