Of U.S. states, New York ranks No. 2 in attracting international students, according to the Open Doors Report for 2011. And Cornell was one of six New York universities that consistently ranks in the top 40 for U.S. institutions hosting international students, according to the report.

Cornell was ranked No. 25 of U.S. universities for the number of international students it hosts. Cornell had 4,357 international students in 2010-11, according to the report. The University of Southern California was ranked first with 8,615 students.

The "Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange" is published annually by the Institute of International Education (IIE) in partnership with the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

All told, 78,888 international students were on campuses across New York in 2010-11, a 3.6 percent increase from the previous year. Those international students contributed $2.4 billion to New York's economy, an increase of 4 percent from 2009-10, the report pointed out.

The five countries that send the most students to New York are China, India, South Korea, Canada and Taiwan. California attracted the most international students, cites the report; New York was second, and Texas was third.

In addition, the IIE also cited the Cornell-Cantabria Program (CCEP) as part of its Andrew Heiskell Awards, which "promote and honor the most outstanding initiatives that are being conducted in international higher education by IIENetwork-member universities and colleges."

In the category of Best Practices in International Partnerships, CCEP won honorable mention -- the only program cited in this category besides the winning Harold E. Spencer Exchange in Teacher Education program at the University of Nebraska Lincoln and University of Castilla-La Mancha.

The CCEP was designed to not only provide engineers with global skills, but also to help them understand Spanish, a skill increasingly needed in the United States. The program allows students with a solid high school background in the Spanish language to take Cornell College of Engineering curriculum-approved courses, primarily in English, while studying at the Universidad de Cantabria in Santander, Spain, for a full academic year.

The program, taught at the Universities of Cantabria and Cornell, meets the requirements of both institutions and allows up to 20 students from each university to study two full academic years together spending one year at each institution. The international experience is broadened with internships and other activities, including construction site visits.

"The program is recognized for its efforts to help participating students open the door to expanded international engineering opportunities worldwide," according to the IIE website.

IIE is the leading not-for-profit educational and cultural exchange organization in the United States, according to its website.