March 18 (Bloomberg) -- Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee wants to more than double the number of undergraduates from outside the U.S. and says every member of the student body should have a passport.

Almost 3 percent of Ohio State’s undergraduates who registered in September were from other countries, said Shelly Hoffman, a spokeswoman for the school. Gee aims to increase the portion to 8 to 10 percent, he said today in an interview in New York.

Gee also said he would like all students to have a passport and wants to “staple a green card” to the diplomas of international students. That would allow lawful permanent residency in the U.S. Students from within the state of Ohio benefit by being exposed to people from other countries, and from having clearance to travel abroad, he said.

“I want them to see the world not through the eyes of the 88 counties of Ohio but through the eyes of the world in which they’re going live,” said Gee, 65.

About 62,000 students attend Ohio State, including 53,715 at the main campus in Columbus, Ohio. About 80 percent of the students are from Ohio, he said. During the 2007-2008 school year, about 1,800 studied abroad, Hoffman said.

International students at U.S. campuses are at a record high, according to a report released in November by the Institute of International Education, a New York-based nonprofit organization. The number of international students increased by 7 percent to 623,805 in academic year 2007-08, the report said.

The most international students went to the state of California, and the city with the most was New York, the report said. The number of students in the U.S. rose 13 percent for India, 20 percent for China and 11 percent for South Korea, the report said.

Gee served in succession as president of West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia; the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado; Ohio State; and Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, before becoming chancellor of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2007, he became president of Ohio State for the second time.

Ohio State University was founded in 1870. The late artist Roy Lichtenstein attended the school. Living alumni include the comedian Richard Lewis. Another graduate is Leslie Wexner, founder of Limited Brands Inc. Wexner will become chairman of Ohio State’s board of trustees on April 3, according to a school announcement in February.

To contact the reporter on this story: Janet Frankston Lorin in New York jlorin@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 18, 2009 13:19 EDT