COMMUNITY COLLEGES LURE FOREIGN STUDENTS.

Byline: Christopher Noxon Daily News Staff Writer

When Farid Farhed decided to leave his home in Sweden to attend a university, he wasn't looking for an ivy-covered institution or even an exotic locale.

The 21-year-old business student just wanted to attend a clean, safe, relatively cheap American school. Moorpark Community College fit the bill.

Farhed is one of about 100 foreign students enrolled at the hillside college this semester. He says none of his fellow foreign students regrets traveling from around the world to attend Moorpark.

``It's really nice here,'' he said. ``We hear all the time about crime and stuff in America, but you don't see any of that here.''

It may not be particularly glamorous, but the Ventura County Community College District is drawing more and more students from around the world. Thanks to an aggressive recruitment program, the number of foreign students has risen steadily to 229 enrolled this year.

The number is within reach of goals announced after the recruitment effort was launched earlier this year. Led by Elise Schneider, former president of Oxnard College, the recruitment drive is expected to entice 100 more full-time students by June of 1997.

``I feel confident that we'll reach our goal,'' said Schneider. ``We offer something really unique.''

In the last few months, Schneider made two trips to Asia in search for students. She will make another trip in October to visit education fairs in Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan and India. Schneider says the district can expect to see the benefit of these trips in the coming years.

``I'm planting seeds on these Asia trips,'' she said. ``Most people at these fairs have heard of UCLA or USC, but few of them have ever heard of us. I'm getting our name out there.''

College district officials say foreign students bring cultural diversity to the district's campuses at Moorpark, Oxnard and Ventura. A foreign student also pays about 10 times as much to the district as a local resident does.

Local residents pay $13 a unit. Foreign students, however, pay $141 a unit for a minimum of two 12-unit semesters.

``These are separate dollars from the state funding we receive,'' Schneider said. ``That money can be used for educational programs or more staff or, if the program really takes off, it could even pay for new facilities.''

But district officials say their program is still a bargain for the foreign students, compared with options at state and private universities.

The total tuition for a foreign student is about $3,400 a year, Schneider said, compared with $14,000 a year to attend UCLA and $20,000 tuition at USC.

While many state and private universities run aggressive recruitment programs for foreign students, the practice is relatively new for community college districts. One notable exception is the program at Santa Monica Community College, which draws about 2,200 foreign students annually.