News and commentary

OTTAWA – The federal government’s investments in university research, skills and talent will help to make Canada more innovative and competitive, says the organization representing Canada’s 97 universities across the country.

“One million young people will graduate from Canada’s universities by the year 2017,” says Stephen Toope, president of The University of British Columbia and chair of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. “They’ll be equipped with the knowledge, experiences and skills Canada will need for decades to come. And they’ll have gained the ability to adapt to the jobs of today – and tomorrow.”

“Canada needs more university, college and trades graduates to compete in the new global knowledge economy,” adds Paul Davidson, president of AUCC. According to a recent CIBC report, most jobs in high demand in Canada require a university degree, including managers in health, education, social and community services; human resources and business service professionals; and supervisors in manufacturing and processing.

The federal government’s research investments have made Canada a top research nation. “Even in difficult fiscal times, the government recognizes that university research fuels a competitive advantage for Canada,” says Mr. Davidson. “Over successive budgets, the federal government has increased support for research and innovation in Canada –investments that nurture talent, create jobs and make us more competitive internationally.”

Canada’s universities also welcomed the importance that today’s budget places on international education initiatives. “Investments in international education leverage economic benefits of more than $8 billion a year – and they benefit every region of Canada,” Mr. Davidson points out. “Employers tell us they want a versatile international workforce. Canada benefits – and Canadian students benefit – from a global outlook.”

AUCC is part of an education sector-led consortium that has urged the government to enhance international education efforts to drive Canada’s global competitiveness, and is ready to work with partners to help ensure the international education strategy advances.

A new element of the international education efforts announced today is enhanced funding for Mitacs’ Globalink Program, which brings top undergraduate students from around the world to Canadian universities to undertake research projects and will now allow Canadian students to go abroad for research experiences. “This is an opportunity for Canada’s universities to enhance their profile and attract the brightest international students to our campuses,” says Mr. Davidson.

University leaders also welcomed a new scholarship program that will improve access and achievement for Aboriginal postsecondary students. The budget provides funding to be matched by the private sector for new scholarships for Aboriginal students through an initiative of Indspire, in collaboration with Canada’s universities.

“Aboriginal youth is the fastest growing segment of our population, yet Aboriginal university graduation rates lag far behind those of the non-Aboriginal population,” notes Mr. Davidson. “These measures are a concrete step towards closing the education gap.”

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For interviews and information, please contact:

Helen Murphy
Assistant Director, Communications
Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada
613.563.1236, ext. 238
Cell: 613.608.8749
hmurphy@aucc.ca

Nadine Robitaille|
Communications Officer
Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada
Tel: 613.563.3961, ext. 306
Cell: 613.884.8401
nrobitaille@aucc.ca

Read the media release of the Consortium for International Education Marketing.

This op-ed was published in Embassy magazine on December 18, 2012.

By Paul Davidson
President
Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada

As part of the Governor General’s delegation to Mexico this month, I heard His Excellency David Johnston’s call for “the diplomacy of knowledge.” He describes this as the willingness and ability to work together—across disciplines and across borders.

That diplomacy, making people-to-people connections, is powerful. Reaching around the world to connect and collaborate on ideas will move us forward as a country. But instead of global competition for talent, we should think about global collaboration for talent.

We travelled to Mexico to promote further co-operation in innovation, technology, education and local development. It’s a start. Real change will come from developing more hands-on working relationships – those people-to-people connections.

On the academic front, there are compelling reasons to increase co-operation through student and faculty mobility and international research, not just with Mexico, but globally. China, India and Brazil, in particular, offer a growing wealth of opportunities on many fronts. And there is a certain urgency around our need to seize those opportunities.

Our workforce is aging. During the next 20 years, six million Canadians, the baby boomers, will be poised for retirement. But the working world they are leaving is vastly different from the one they entered. Our new entrants must have skills and knowledge far beyond the local markets we once served. The generation we are educating now must develop global skills. Their preparation will determine Canada’s prosperity for the next 50 years.

Part of the solution lies in attracting more international students. They enhance the educational experience of Canadian students by bringing global perspectives, languages and cultures to our campuses. They also have a tremendous economic impact on communities across Canada. While our country has plenty to offer, the lure of the United States is strong. So our efforts to attract people from around the world have to be bolder and louder.

Mexico, for instance, should be a natural recruiting ground. Geographically, it’s close. We have enjoyed nearly 70 years of diplomatic relations and cooperation in higher education. About 44,000 Mexican students pursued higher education abroad in 2008-09. The lion’s share of them, more than 14,000, went to the U.S. Fewer than 2,000 came to Canada, ranking us sixth, behind countries as far away as Germany and France. And even Australia is ramping up its efforts there.

I encouraged the students we met in Mexico to consider Canada. We offer an excellent education, coast to coast. Our universities and student living costs are affordable. And we welcome diversity on campus.

There is also plenty to commend in Canadian university faculties. Half of our faculty members were hired in the last decade. They are highly qualified, young and have fresh approaches to teaching and research. They are collaborative and globally oriented. Many have international experience. Meld that with the hands-on approach of co-op, internship and work placements that have become a distinguishing characteristic of the Canadian university experience, and the opportunities for innovative research and teaching are tremendous.

Businesses around the world would also do well to look to Canada as they recruit for internships. In addition to providing practical experience for a student on the cusp of a career choice, businesses benefit from a ready source of new ideas, approaches and energy. The soon-to-be-employed graduate either leaves with a knowledgeable understanding of the strengths of the business or becomes a job-ready, pre-screened recruit.

As a case in point, I met with a vice president of Bombardier Transportation based in Querétaro, Mexico. A graduate of Université de Sherbrooke, she started with Bombardier as an intern in the mid-1990s and never left the company.

Bombardier has established partnerships with leading Mexican universities, including Tecnológico de Monterrey. For its part, TEC Monterrey has networking agreements with 24 Canadian universities, illustrating the international appeal of Canadian university talent and expertise.

These kinds of people connections create opportunities for our students and researchers, and drive bilateral economic growth. Our federal government can help make more of them happen through a sustained, sophisticated and resourced strategy; a strategy that is sector-led and linked to national goals.

To dream big we must go beyond incremental improvements. Change will come not just from the number of agreements signed or visits made, but through a transformed relationship that is matched to the challenge and opportunity before us, in both scope and scale.

This op-ed was published in the Globe and Mail, November 15, 2012

Paul Davidson
President and CEO, Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada

Canada’s universities combine outstanding quality, relevance and affordability. They offer safe and welcoming learning environments. In the globally competitive international education sector, this is an enviable place to be.

So why – in a recent survey of students, parents and education advisers in Brazil, China and India – was Canada not on the map?

Our competitors have offices in key markets with budgets for promoting and building brand awareness. Canada currently spends just $1-million a year to pursue a market that contributes $8-billion annually to communities across the country. Australia has been spending about 20 times that amount for about 15 years – so yes, their brand awareness is higher. The United Kingdom has invested targeted resources in addition to the remarkable reach of the British Council. And U.S. President Barack Obama has made explicit commitments to fund efforts to recruit hundreds of thousands of students from China, India and Brazil.

Even as trade talks stall, and Canada`s approach to foreign investment is clarified, Canada’s education sector has still made enormous strides in advancing Canada’s place in the world. Three years ago, Canada’s universities, colleges, public schools and language institutes formed a consortium to work together to attract more students to Canada. And the results are encouraging – international student enrollment is up 12 per cent at universities this year; enrollment from India is up 40 per cent over two years; and Brazil recently committed to sending up to 12,000 students to Canada through its innovative Science without Borders program.

Achieving that success in Brazil took years of effort and overcoming what respondents to the survey released this week said was a barrier to making Canada their destination: “The weather – COLD.” Canada’s universities identified Brazil as a priority country to pursue two years ago. The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada organized a strategy session for Canadian university leaders, key Brazilian counterparts, and government officials nine months before a mission by university presidents to the country. The Canada-Brazil Science and Technology working group met concurrently to identify areas for greater collaboration, and leaders of Canada’s private sector and media were invited to share their insights. As we built momentum around a Canada strategy for Brazil, a Senate committee initiated a study of the Canada-Brazil relationship, and MPs took an active interest. The Prime Minister announced that the Governor-General would lead the mission to Brazil, and that he would be joined by two ministers, and an accompanying delegation of MPs, business leaders and others from the education sector.

Throughout the process and with the help of public servants, the sector negotiated a series of preliminary agreements that were completed in advance of the April 2012 mission over the course of three working visits. Over the 10 day, four-city mission, Canada’s universities announced 73 new partnerships and Governor-General David Johnston met with President Dilma Rousseff. The number of students Brazil would send was not confirmed until that meeting, in which Mr. Johnston closed the deal so that Canada became the second largest beneficiary of the Science without Borders program. The first thousand students are on campus now and another cohort of about 500 students are expected in January.

This is a compelling example of getting international education marketing right – sector led, with support from government, and active engagement of the private sector, tied to broader strategic interests for Canada (in this case, advancing science technology and innovation with the world’s sixth largest economy).

But there is more to do. As Ipsos-Reid, the polling company commissioned by the Foreign Affairs Department put it, Canada needs to “communicate its postsecondary education advantages” globally. Or as Prime Minister Stephen Harper said last week in Delhi, “Canada needs to be connected to an international supply of ideas, research, talent and technologies in order to create jobs, growth and long-term prosperity in an increasingly competitive environment.”

A sophisticated international education strategy will recognize that, even within the university sector, there are at least four different groups we want to attract – each serving a different public policy goal and requiring specific marketing tools:

Undergraduates are the largest potential pool offering immediate economic benefit to Canada, a source of high quality immigrants and proven potential for increased trade. Master’s and PhD students have demonstrated abilities from the world`s best institutions, particularly in the fields of science ,technology, engineering and math to help Canada strengthen our innovation capacity. Post-doctoral students who are outstanding new scholars require targeted measures to attract them to pursue their early careers here. And finally, young global faculty with whom we can develop international research collaborations and who in turn will ignite interest in Canada among the next generation of their students overseas.

By living with and learning from international students, Canadian students have the opportunity to acquire the global skills employers are demanding. Moreover, their presence on our campuses alerts Canadian students to the intensity of the global competition that awaits them upon graduation and creates life-long networks that will span the world and continue beyond their time on campus. Universities are ready to participate in the sustained, co-ordinated and resourced initiative to leverage more fully our global brand for excellence in education.

Ottawa – International Education Week, November 12-17, 2012 is an opportunity to celebrate the importance of Canadian universities’ internationalization efforts.

The purpose of International Education Week is to increase awareness and understanding of international education through a variety of activities and events undertaken by governments, educational institutions, stakeholder groups, and individuals.

Canadian universities are committed to the internationalization of higher education and research through the development of globally knowledgeable and engaged graduates, engagement in global research efforts with the world’s leading experts, attracting top talent to Canadian institutions, and cultivating strategic alliances and partnerships that lead to political, social and economic ties of tomorrow.

All forms of international collaboration and connectivity are valuable, including two-way international student and faculty mobility, international research collaboration, joint academic programming, internationalization of the curriculum, and engaging with communities in the developing world. Canada’s universities are building people-to-people linkages and institutional partnerships in countries around the world.

In recognition of the importance of international education to Canada’s prosperity and to enriching Canadian society, the federal government mandated an Advisory Panel on Canada’s International Education Strategy to make recommendations on a national strategy. In August 2012, the panel submitted its final report entitled International Education: A Key Driver of Canada’s Future Prosperity which focuses on a vision for Canada to become the 21st century leader in international education, to attract top talent and prepare our citizens for the global marketplace.

AUCC is committed to supporting our members’ internationalization efforts, and the federal government’s goal of making Canada a country of choice to study and conduct world-class research.

AUCC is the national voice of Canada’s universities, representing 95 Canadian public and not-for-profit universities.

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For more information:

Gail Bowkett
Director, International Relations
Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada
Tel: 613-563-3961, ext. 301
gbowkett@aucc.ca