No ‘Trump Bump’ for Medicine Hat College
While various news reports have been speaking lately of a so-called ‘Trump Bump’ in the Canadian education system, as more international students eschew the United States due to the perceived chaos in our southern neighbour’s political society at the moment, Medicine Hat College is not seeing any extra gains, confirms MHC registrar Sandy Henderson.
“We are anticipating a slight increase in international students in the fall, but it isn’t really connected to the issue of the United States at all,” he says. “We’re not a traditional draw for the students who would go to the United States. Basically international students going to the States are going for graduate studies and on scholarships. They also want the experience of living in a big city like New York... So no Donald Trump effect here.”
MHC is projecting it will have 125 international students coming this fall, about 100 of whom will be coming to take career courses such as business administration and computer programming. Only about 25 ESL students will be landing in Medicine Hat for college this fall. Henderson confirms this number is slightly above average, but can be attributed to MHC’s recruitment strategy, not to geo-political trends.
“We have implemented at strategic enrollment management plan, and we have been focusing on recruitment (of international students) as one of the pillars of that plan,” explains Henderson. “We do have an international education office which is focused on international students, and we do have an international recruiter who has been working really hard this year. Those are probably more of the reasons for our increase in international student enrollment this year.”
Henderson says the college wouldn’t mind seeing some of that ‘Trump Bump,’ but knows it wouldn’t be realistic to expect it.
“The reality is we provide a great educational experience, but we are not Harvard or McGill. We are not the University of Alberta.”