Education: Welcome, Stranger

U.S. colleges this month turn to a duty that has grown to critical national importance: educating students from new and developing nations, who passionately seek U.S. knowledge. It is a task full of promise. "Students want to come to the U.S.," says Philip H. Coombs, the State Department's Assistant Secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs. "This is an asset we should be pretty thankful for. We couldn't buy it."

Last year U.S. colleges enrolled 53,107 foreign students, up 46% since 1956. Included were 19,222 Asians, a 12% rise in one year, and 2,831...