News and commentary

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 – Canada is increasingly an education destination of choice for top university students around the world. New university enrolment figures from all provinces except Quebec show that the number of international students in these provinces has increased 12 percent this fall. (Quebec figures are expected in November.)

The increases in international student enrolment are reflected in the growth of Canadian students as well, with an increase of 3.4 percent in the graduate student population and two percent among undergraduates.

AUCC says that the overall upward trend in enrolment demonstrates the value that students continue to put on higher education in Canada.

According to federal government estimates, 75 percent of new jobs in the coming decade will require postsecondary education. Between 2010 and 2020, AUCC estimates there will be 2.1 million jobs created for university graduates. During their careers university graduates will typically earn $1.3 million more than those with a high-school education alone. The lifetime income advantage for a bachelor’s graduate over a registered tradesperson or college grad working full-time is $1 million.

“Students and their families recognize that university remains the surest path to prosperity,” said Mr. Davidson. “University graduates routinely earn much higher incomes and experience more stable employment than those without a university education.”

Having international students in university classrooms provides value for Canadian students as well.

“The presence of students from around the globe on Canadian campuses enriches the education experience for all students,” says Paul Davidson, president of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. “Living and learning alongside students with different perspectives, languages and cultures helps Canadian students develop the international awareness in demand by today’s employers.”

According to a July 2012 federal government report, international students pursuing their education in Canada generate 81,000 jobs, nearly $8-billion in spending and more than $445 million in government revenue.

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

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Media Contact:

Helen Murphy, Communications Manager
Association of Universities and Colleges of Canad
hmurphy@aucc.ca
613-563-1236 ext. 238 Cell. 613-608-8749

Op-ed published in Research Money September 21, 2012

By Daniel Woolf
Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Queen’s University
Chair of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada’s Standing Advisory Committee on International Relations

New and returning students have unpacked their things and settled back into campus life here at Queen’s University, but many graduate students have been here all summer, working alongside faculty researchers on a variety of projects. The research endeavour never sleeps.

In Canada, we’re doing well in terms of research achievements. Canadian research teams have elevated our status as a world leader in areas of expertise such as information and communications technology, health education and environmental stewardship. But we need to push further to compete in today’s highly competitive, multi-disciplinary, trillion-dollar global research industry. Our contemporaries are already focusing their resources and attention to compete in this market.

Take a look at Brazil, projected to become the fifth-largest economy over the next few years. Already, it has 5.4 million university students and produces more PhDs than Canada. Other parts of the world have become the planet’s economic drivers. In fewer than two decades, more than 40 percent of the world’s GDP will come from Asia.

A culture of collaboration among top world talent has already become both the norm and the necessity. In Canada, some 40 percent of today’s university faculty earned their first or highest degree in another country, and 30 percent of Canada Research Chairs have been recruited from abroad. Top research talents are collaborating at a record level to leverage their combined data, research and knowledge. Close to 50 percent of Canada’s research papers have co-authors from other countries – twice the rate of 15 years ago and double the world average. Now we must step up our momentum to keep pace with the changing context of global research.

The shift toward international partnerships comes as traditional world powers cope with difficult fiscal realities. The United States’ slower-than-anticipated recovery and the European Union’s ongoing economic fragility have allowed Brazil, China and India to seize the lead. In this climate of change, what remains constant is the collective global recognition that university research, as a key investment, drives both short- and long-term economic growth. Over the past decade, our competitors have been pouring considerable resources into all sectors of research.

The Royal Society of London estimates the number of researchers, globally, at seven million. In our research-driven global economy, the new challengers – with their booming populations – are very serious about research and economic growth.

As I, and others, have stated elsewhere, Canada is facing fundamental choices. Economic, social and technological revolutions are underway throughout the world. We will confront significant economic, health, and labour market challenges as a result of shifting demographics in the decades ahead. By 2030, the proportion of the Canadian population that is over the age of 65 will double, while the working age population (ages 25-64) will grow by only eight percent. To offset these differences and remain competitive in the global marketplace, we must use our considerable research assets to drive innovation and become more productive.

There are already clear results from global collaborations, and more will follow. Working as teammates, our international partnerships on pandemic research and planning mean we’ll also combat the spread of infectious diseases with greater insight and speed. Collaboration in the face of major environmental shifts and surging world populations will ensure better planetary resource management.

For example, Queen’s University partners with Fudan University in Shanghai and the Southwest University of China to offer the Ontario Universities Program in Field Biology. Students from both countries do field study on aquatic environments and ecosystems along the Yangtze River in the vicinity of the Three Gorges Dam Project in China, and in the St. Lawrence River and Frontenac Arch regions of Eastern Ontario.

Moreover, Colin Funk, Canada Research Chair in Molecular, Cellular and Physiological Medicine at Queen’s, is the only Canadian scientist working with an international consortium of 39 investigators from 18 institutions and four countries to personalize drug therapy for the most common medications consumed worldwide, with the goal of reducing the risk of heart attacks, heart failure and strokes.

These examples show Canada has top talent to bring to the table. But if we expect others to view Canada as an attractive partner, we must commit to R&D as an investment priority, and make this commitment well-known across the globe. Competition is fierce. Our international colleagues seeking collaboration on highly complex issues will naturally pursue the most readily available resources, talent and investment.

As our competitors surge forward, Canada must commit more in R&D investment, particularly on the private sector side. Either we demonstrate comparable commitment, or potential collaborators will take their business elsewhere: we then run the further risk of Canadian researchers moving outside Canada.

To build prosperity at home, our international competitors must also be our allies. Competition and collaboration now go hand-in-hand. The result of doing both well will be increased innovation, productivity, social well-being, entrepreneurship and jobs for Canadians.

Op-ed published by the Toronto Star, September 8, 2012

By Alastair Summerlee
President, University of Guelph
Ex officio director, Board of directors, Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada

Student mobility in higher education is a two-way street. We want to attract top students from around the world to study in Canada, and we want Canadian students to benefit from study-abroad experiences. While the incoming traffic of international students is humming along rather nicely, with good growth potential, outgoing traffic is like the road to a Canadian beach in March.

Although we still lag behind key competitor countries in international student recruitment, our share of the pie has been growing. In 2011, the number of international students enrolled in Canadian universities grew for the 16th consecutive year. There are now 100,000 international students from more than 200 countries studying at Canada’s universities.

Why is this important? For starters, international students enrich the educational experience of Canadian students by bringing global perspectives, cultures and languages to our campuses. Attracting students from around the world also helps build prosperity in Canada.

There’s a myth out there that these students are a drain on our tax dollars, but that’s simply not true. International students typically pay the full cost of their education and have a huge economic impact on Canada. According to a federal government report released in July 2012, international students generate 81,000 jobs, nearly $8 billion in spending and more than $445 million in government revenue annually. That’s worth more than our export of wheat.

In the coming years, universities and their partners in government and the private sector will increasingly work together to bring more international students to Canada’s campuses. But we must also do more to expand opportunities for Canadian students to study abroad. Only 12 percent of today’s undergraduates participate in international study experiences for academic credit before they graduate. The world demands something more of us.

Canada’s future is increasingly shaped by global, fast-moving interconnected forces. To understand these challenges, we need a workforce with knowledge of other countries, cultures and languages, and an ability to establish partnerships with colleagues from around the world. Getting more Canadian students to live and learn in another culture is about developing global citizens and building the labour force Canada needs to be prosperous in the knowledge economy.

According to a recent survey by the Canadian Bureau for International Education, 91 percent of employers say they value job candidates with international experience because it develops cross-cultural understanding. And 50 percent said they would hire a candidate with study abroad experience over one without — all else being equal.

International study experiences also play a significant role in students’ personal growth. For many young Canadians, university years are the most transformative time in their lives and this is enriched by exposure to new cultures, languages, communities and experiences. Students return from overseas placements with an expanded understanding not only of the world around them, but of themselves. And they come back with a better understanding of the value of being Canadian.

At the University of Guelph, I have seen hundreds of students return from global study experiences with a new awareness of what is magical about Canada, of what is incredible about living here. They come back with a sense of marvel at what we do and accomplish on a daily basis; things that they used to take for granted.

Unless we significantly boost the number of Canadian students gaining international study experiences, Canada risks being left behind. Consider what our economic competitors are doing. About 33 percent of German and 20 percent of American university students participate in study-abroad programs over the course of their university studies.

Financial considerations are often cited as the most significant reason for Canada’s dismal participation rates in international study experiences. We can do better.

A pan-Canadian international student mobility program, with both government and private sector funding, would help students gain the international experience they need to achieve their potential and contribute to the global economy. This program should include opportunities for both short-term and long-term study, work and research abroad. Private sector involvement will be key to providing students with hands-on experiences through internships and similar opportunities.

I am more confident that this will happen — and soon — with the release of the advisory panel’s report on Canada’s International Education Strategy on August 14. The panel — led by Western University President Amit Chakma and mandated with advising the federal government on a new strategy for international education — calls for a major new mobility program to enable an additional 50,000 Canadian students a year to go abroad for study and cultural exchanges, service learning and other experiential learning activities by 2022.

Global experiences give us perspective. They help our young people understand Canada’s place in the world and their place in Canada. International study helps develop the culturally aware employees that industry needs.

More importantly, these experiences nurture compassionate, globally literate, adaptable young adults who are ready to take their place in the world. And that’s what Canada needs.