Educating Asia
Wed, September 24 2008
The “Imagine Education in Canada” brand, the product of a high-level meeting of provincial education ministers this week in Fredericton, New Brunswick, will be used to sell Canada as an education destination abroad, and follows closely on the heels of an expansion of the post-graduate work permit for foreign students, and the extension of off-campus work permits for all overseas students.
Never in the history of Canada have so many opportunities been made available for young foreigners looking to study at our post-secondary institutions, or to use their newly-minted Canadian degrees, certificates or trades tickets to enhance their eligibility in applying to immigrate to Canada.
In May, Ottawa announced that international students studying at eligible private post-secondary institutions in Canada can apply for off-campus work permits to supplement their living and academic expenses. Previously, only international students at public universities and colleges in the province were able to apply.
A month earlier, Ottawa announced that under the post-graduate work permit program international students can obtain, for the first time, an open three-year work permit to get a job in Canada with no restrictions on the type of employment and no requirement for a job offer.
The excitement on campus in British Columbia is palpable, says Carolyn Hanna, Director of International Student Retention and an International Student Advisor at Simon Fraser University.
“(These programs) have definitely created a lot of buzz amongst our international students at SFU,” she said. “In general, students seem excited about having more options available to them both during their studies and upon graduation.”
The Edu-Canada initiative, as it is now being called, has been carefully designed to attract the best and the brightest, particularly students from Asia, the source region for the majority of B.C.’s foreign students.
New Brunswick Education Minister Kelly Lamrock, who spearheaded the new brand, said in a country like China, it simply doesn’t make sense to try to pitch individual provinces.
“They also know Canada as ... a place of high quality education.”
Lamrock said attracting foreign students also improves the learning environment for Canadian students, who benefit from an influx of fresh ideas, new opinions and more diverse thought reflective of an increasingly shrinking world.
Fears that B.C. will be overshadowed by a national program that puts Canada before its member provinces on the global education stage are unfounded, says B.C.’s Minister of Advanced Education and Labour Market Development Murray Coell.
“Thirty per cent of international students studying in Canada choose B.C., Canada’s Pacific Gateway,” Coell told the Asian Pacific Post.
“An increase in international student enrolment would mean an increase in enrolment in B.C., and we welcome that.
Every year B.C. welcomes up to 140,000 students from around the world.”
Coell said that while Canada will receive a marketing boost abroad through this new federal initiative, B.C. will continue to draw the lion’s share of overseas students.
He points to a superior quality education system, a high standard of living, a multicultural society, stable and safe surroundings and stunning natural beauty as factors that play on the minds of top-calibre international students considering the next four years of their lives.
“Also, B.C. has a large immigrant population to offer a supportive environment to international students,” added Coell. “And our education system has many decades of expertise in delivering English as a Second Language programs to round out the post-secondary experience for interested students.”
The call to create a national brand to market Canada’s education offerings overseas came from many quarters, said the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, including: Provincial ministries, academic institutions, academics, students, the private sector and the federal government.
The CMEC says it is now key to Canada’s future that we develop a worldwide network of academics and researchers. Improving international education also provides a significant, positive economic impact, and boosts the gross domestic product, innovation, international trade, and foreign direct investment.
“Imagine – which conveys the message that a Canadian education opens the door to a world of opportunities – we can move forward and enable an entire generation of young people from
around the world to discover the many advantages of going to school in Canada,” it stated, in a press release this week.
At the University of B.C., which boasts over 6,000 international students, Karen McKellin, Associate Director for UBC’s International Student Initiative said that while the majority of foreign students return to their homelands with their “cache” degrees, Canada should be encouraging those students to deploy their education in the country that gave it to them.
“The government has moved recently to allow international students to stay beyond their degree for three years,” she said. “That’s been a very attractive option.”
“Canada is a newcomer to this,” added McKellin, who said Australia, Great Britain and the United States are at the forefront of Canada’s competition for overseas students.
“Other countries make efforts to invite students that have been educated in their countries to stay there.”
Like Advanced Education Minister Murray Coell, UBC’s McKellin says B.C. is in no danger of being lost in the mix of a national brand initiative.
“The national brand will help provinces position themselves - most people in the the world when they think of Canada, they don’t think of individual provinces.”
In the quest for international students, McKellin says Canada’s first challenge is to get prospective students to “look beyond the 49th parallel,” or the United States.
“It’s important that we get them to think of Canada as an option first and then look at the different options across the country,” she said.
SFU’s Carolyn Hanna agrees that Canada is moving in the right direction by leaving the door to permanent residency open through education outreach overseas.
“These changes show a strong recognition by the Canadian government that international students educated here are an excellent source of talent for Canada’s labour market because they can easily integrate into Canadian society and alleviate labour market demands in certain sectors,” she said. “In addition, international students educated in Canada will not face the challenges of foreign credential recognition that have been a cause of concern for so many other skilled workers in this country.”
Minister Coell concurs, there are long-term objectives behind the raft of initiatives Canada has brought in to play in the international academic arena.
“The B.C. experience is often so positive for many international students, that they are willing to immigrate to our beautiful province as welcome contributors, who help ease the challenge of labour shortages we face,” he said, adding 1.1 million B.C. job openings are anticipated between 2005 and 2015.
By Mata Press Service
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