Feds aim to double number of international students
OTTAWA — The Harper government will outline plans Wednesday to double the number of international students in Canada by targeting China and other fast-growing countries, Postmedia News has learned.
It is the latest step in the government’s strategy to inject economic development into the heart of Canada’s foreign policy.
More diplomatic, visa-processing and marketing resources will be shifted to China, Vietnam, India, Brazil, Mexico, and the Middle East-North Africa region, including Turkey, to help recruit the world’s best and brightest, Trade Minister Ed Fast is to announce in Toronto.
The goal is to boost the number of international students and academic researchers to more than 450,000 by 2022, which translates into a huge cash injection for universities due in part to the lofty tuitions paid by non-Canadians.
And that will be done “without displacing Canadian students,” Fast is to assure an audience at Ryerson University.
Canadian full-time undergraduates paid on average $5,772 this year, or 3.3 per cent higher than 2012-13, according to Statistics Canada. International students paid more than triple that amount, and the average $19,514 tuition fee they paid was 6.8 per cent higher than the previous year.
The federal strategy is to boost the number of Canadian jobs “sustained” by international students by 86,500, or double the current number. “International education is a key driver of jobs and prosperity in every region of Canada,” Fast is to say Wednesday.
Canada, according to a partial transcript of his prepared statement, is in a “fiercely competitive” battle with other countries, especially the U.S., Britain and Australia, for international students.
The strategy will “help us advance Canada’s commercial interests in priority markets around the world and ensure that we maximize the people-to-people ties that help Canadian workers, businesses and world-class educational institutions achieve real success in the largest, most dynamic and fastest-growing economies in the world.”
The strategy includes an investment of $13 million over two years in Mitacs, a Vancouver-based national not-for-profit company that helps Canadian university students obtain placements in academic institutions in China, Brazil, India, Mexico, Turkey and Vietnam.
Another $5 million a year will fund a “branding and marketing” campaign that will promote Canada as a destination for students seeking a high-quality education at a relatively low cost.
A branding effort is necessary, according to research, because foreigners typically first choose a country they want to study and potentially live in before they select a particular institution.
A 2012 study estimated that international students spent $8 billion a year on tuition, accommodation and discretionary spending — an amount greater than the total annual overseas sales of Canadian helicopters, airplanes and spacecraft.
Ontario and B.C. currently host two-thirds of all international students in Canada.
The Harper government has drawn both praise and criticism for realigning Canada’s foreign policy to put a greater emphasis on trade, investment and the recruitment of skilled workers. One move made the Canadian International Development Agency a part of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development. Aid officials have been directed to put more emphasis on projects that support Canadian investments abroad, especially in the huge mining industry.
Critics say the moves have deemphasized matters like human rights and poverty alleviation.