ACCESSIBILITY OF UNM TO

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS.................................................................................................. 2
ABSTRACT................................................................................................................... 2
INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................... 3
METHODOLOGY.......................................................................................................... 3
RESULTS..................................................................................................................... 4
DISCUSSION OF RESULTS............................................................................................ 8
CONCLUSION / FINAL RECOMMENDATION...................................................................9

ABSTRACT
In this recommendation report, I will discuss the problem of the accessibility of the
GEO (Global Education Office) website for international students. The website is
quite hard to reach and when on the page the information is very scattered. This is
based on personal experience. I conducted surveys among international students to
see if they encountered the same problems as I did. The response was mainly yes,
and they mainly had a problem with the scattered information on the website. In the
surveys, the respondents also came up with a few concrete solutions. The main
solution was to make one page (on the home page or easily accessible) with all the
important information there.

INTRODUCTION
While I was applying to universities in America as a student from Belgium, I
encountered a few difficulties when looking around for colleges to apply for and
what the requirements were. Luckily, I had an organization in Belgium who helped
me through the whole process and helped me get through all the steps required to
be enrolled in a college. But this organization charged quite a hefty price, and I
would like future international students to evade these costs, so they can spend
their money more wisely.
Now, although the University of New Mexico isnt alone in dealing with these
accessibility problems, I shall be focusing on this university because it is the one
where I graduated and I would like to help them resolve some of these issues. The
main problems are that the GEO website is difficult to reach from the main UNM.edu
site and that the important information (checklists, procedures, etc. before and after
arriving at the university) is scattered all over the place. This makes it difficult for
international students to find out what they should do, and it makes for a rougher
transition to life at UNM.
UNM already has a very diverse body of students. Momentarily over 1,500 students
call Albuquerque, New Mexico their second home. This number could be increased
even further if students could apply a bit easier and had clear steps to follow. So, I
looked around for a few solutions to the problems mentioned above and concluded
with a final solution that would make it easier for international high school/college
students to find their way around. In this report, I will further discuss how I went
about researching the problem, presenting my results, discussing my results and
then offering a final recommendation.

METHODOLOGY
Research question
So, the question that begs to be answered is How can the university of New
Mexicos website be made more accessible for International students?
As this is a rather broad question, Ill narrow it down to how the website can be
made more accessible to find scholarships, deadlines, and checklists for
international students.
Personal Experience
My research will be mostly based on how I experienced the GEO.edu website. I had
a few problems when navigating the website and this is where I found the
motivation to write about the problem. So, I will mainly write about the problems I
faced and how I would solve them.
Survey among international students
I will also conduct a few surveys among the international (not exchange) students
who are studying at the University of New Mexico now. First, to make sure that I was
not the only one facing the problems. Second, to research what the main problems

are. And finally, what the international students see as good solutions. As there isnt
really any online research on the subject I could not use the internet on this subject,
except for personal observations on the universitys website.

Survey questions
-

How did you find out about the University of New Mexico?
Did you get any outside help while applying?
Did the checklists and procedures on geo.unm.edu help you in any way?
Did you find that the deadlines and checklists were clear and easy to access?
Was the GEO site easily accessible?
Can the GEO site be made more accessible?
If yes, how?

RESULTS
My research had two pieces. One piece was my personal experience with the
application process and coming to UNM, another piece is the survey I put out there
to see if other international students dealt with the same problems as I did. So, Ill
start by presenting my observation results, and then present the results of the
surveys.
Personal experience
The website of UNM is quite easy to find when you look for it on the internet. But
then we encounter the first problem, the universitys website is quite difficult to
navigate. There are a lot of links to a lot of different subdivisions of the university,
but generally they arent very clear on what you can find when you click on a
certain link. So, it took me a while to find the GEO website and I usually had to go
through 3-4 steps to get there.
Lets say we go to unm.edu and get to the GEO website without any problems, the
GEO website is quite accessible, but its still a bit confusing. The requirements to be
admitted to the USA and UNM are all on the website, but theyre pretty spread out.
The legal requirements are under the International students tab and the
requirements for scholarships are under the tab scholarships. Now, these arent
huge problems, but it makes it a lot less accessible for international students who
have no idea how the American education and visa requirements work. So, the GEO
site is adequate and it obviously works good enough, otherwise there wouldnt be
as many international students, but I feel like there is a lot of room for
improvement.

Survey among international students

Figure 1: How did you find out about the University of New Mexico(UNM)?
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This survey was just to see how students encountered the University of New Mexico,
which says a bit how known the university is among internationals. And if most of
the students find out on their own, they would want clear and concise steps to apply
to the university and to get into the United States. And that is the case here.

Figure 2: Did you get any outside help while applying to UNM and applying for an American visa?
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This, again, shows that most (64%) international students dont have any outside
help and they can use clear steps to go through the application process.

Figure 3: Did the checklist and procedure on the GEO's (Global Education Office) website help in any way?
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This part of the survey shows that the checklists and procedures on the GEOs site
are helpful because a large amount (71%) say that they have used the checklists
and procedures as a helpful tool.

Figure 4: Do you feel that the checklists and procedure on geo.unm.edu should be organized more efficiently?
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Here it shows that 64% of respondents would want the checklists and procedures to
be better organized, and the majority says that they would want one large checklist
thats not hidden somewhere on the website.

Figure 5: Was the GEO website easily accessible?

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Yes, I got a link from a university employee

No, I found it, but I had a hard time

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So, in this graph we see that 71% of the respondents feel that the GEO website is
accessible and most of them found it via my.unm.edu.

Figure 6: Can the GEO website be made more accessible?

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Yes

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But even though 71% of respondents found the GEO website easily, 71% of
respondents also feel that the website can be made more accessible.

Figure 7: If yes, how?

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And here we see how the respondents would like to see the GEO website made
more accessible. Most of them (43%) would want a new tab named International
students (under future students maybe) on the main website of the university. And
35% would just like to see a simple link to the GEO website.

DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
The results from the survey I conducted among 14 International Students mainly
corresponds with the results I found from my own observations.
Accessibility of geo.unm.edu
When we are talking about the accessibility of the GEO website, the consensus is
that it should be made more accessible. But the options on how to do this differ.
Solution one: One popular solution was to make a direct link thats clear to see on
the main page that very directly says that it will lead you to unm.geo.edu.
Solution two: Another main solution that was offered is that unm.edu should just
make a tab for incoming international students and have most of the information for
them posted on there. And leave the GEO site for exchange students from the U.S.A.
and students already in the States.
The above problem isnt that important but would be easy to solve, doesnt matter
which solution is chosen.

Scattered information on geo.unm.edu

The next problem that I feel should be solved is one of the checklists and the
procedures. These are very unorganized and spread out across the GEO website.
Solution one: One of the options to solve this is to center the checklist and the
procedure in one place and provide direct links to this on the homepage of the GEO
website.
Solution two: Another option was to keep the checklists and the procedures in the
places they were, but provide clear links on the homepage to where they precisely
are so students can navigate the website with more ease.

CONCLUSION / FINAL RECOMMENDATION

My final recommendation for this problem is that a clear title on the homepage of
GEO that is named: Checklist for international students. And under this title you can
make a few separate subtitles named: Requirements, Checklist, Procedures, Legal
requirements, Arrival, Schedule and What to bring. All these components are
already on the website, now it should just be made easy to find from the main page
and make the University of New Mexico a lot more accessible to international

students. And a solution for the first problem would be to just have a clear link to
geo.unm.edu on the homepage of unm.edu.
I started out with a very broad research question and narrowed it down to how
international students can easily get to checklists, procedures, and deadlines. From
my own experience, I found that the GEO website wasnt very accessible, but most
the respondents to the survey found that getting to the website wasnt really that
big of a problem. So, my final recommendation wasnt to improve the accessibility
of the GEO website, but rather focus on what (I felt) is the main problem. And that is
the fact that the checklists/deadlines/procedures arent centered in one place on the
GEO website.
Per the survey, most of the respondents did the work to apply themselves and they
had no outside help. This makes it even more important to improve the checklist
part of the website, as they need clear steps to get through the process. The survey
respondents also said that most of them used the checklists on the website to help
them. So, if this can be improved UNM can streamline the whole process and attract
even more international students who contribute to the diversity of the university
and the city of Albuquerque.
Thank you for your time and attention. If you have any questions or remarks, I can
be reached at daviddevos98@unm.edu or 505-318-5589.

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