Canadian
Opportunities for International Education
Remarks by the Hon. David Kilgour
MP Edmonton
Southeast and Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific)
To the Alberta
Bureau of International Education
GMCC - Alberta
College Campus
October 11,
2002
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Delivery
Ladies and
Gentlemen, honoured guests ... Good afternoon.
It’s a pleasure to be here today to
talk about one of Canada’s key assets
- education. As Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific),
one of my priorities is promoting Canadian
educational products and services in the
region. Wherever I go, I hear wonderful
things about Canada and our system of post-secondary
education. It’s all too easy, however,
to rave about our school boards, technical
institutes, colleges and universities -
which are world-leaders - so I would like
to focus instead on what I see as several
key global trends shaping our knowledge-based
economy today. At the same time, I’d
like to touch on some of the opportunities
presented by these trends; I look forward,
in a few minutes, to hearing your views.
Global Trends
A. Connectivity
The world
is changing; the young and educated are
leading the charge. We are in the midst
of a massive shift in the way we communicate,
the way we do business and trade, and the
way we live. You've heard all the buzzwords
- "wireless" ¼¼
"e-com" ¼¼ "the
power of the Internet" ¼¼
"globalization" ¼¼
"the global village." We hear
them so often, that it's easy to dismiss
them, but they really are revolutionizing
how we do business, live, and learn. Canada
is well-adapted to be successful in this
environment. We are a trading nation --
the modern Phoenicians if you will.
What this
means for each of us is that the world is
becoming a smaller place. The challenge
is making sure that as few as possible get
left behind. In Canada, we’re doing
this by harnessing the power of the Internet.
In 1999, Canada became the first country
in the world to connect virtually all of
its public schools and libraries to the
Net.
As part of
this move, our SchoolNet program is working
to increase connectivity in classrooms.
We are, for example, connecting First Nations
schools and other remote schools and libraries
to the Internet using a satellite infrastructure.
SchoolNet’s website, for that matter,
has more than 1,000 e-learning tools and
resources for use at home or in the classroom
by students and teachers alike. Virtually
all our provinces have developed communication
media to bring university programs to remote
areas and disadvantaged groups which might
not otherwise have access to university
education. As a leader in connectivity,
we can export this experience and, at the
same time, help other countries bridge their
digital divides.
The Canadian
private sector is already leading the charge:
·
Vancouver’s Ingenuity Works has distinguished
itself for years in Internet educational
products. Its online training portal - THE
LEARNING WINDOW - is used in over 30,000
schools internationally.
·
MathResources, one of Nova Scotia’s
leading firms, develops interactive software
and online content for mathematics to meet
the mathematical educational of needs of
institutions in the United States and Asia.
In 2002, more than 5 million children in
India will be using one of the company’s
products.
·
Newfoundland’s Media Touch has produced
educational software for aerospace, marine
and oil industry training, as well as a
widely used curriculum management system
for educational institutions.
Taking advantage
of new technology lends itself naturally
to distance learning. Alberta, B.C. and
Quebec, for example, have developed an “Open
University” based on the British model.
This is in addition to the distance education
programs offered by conventional universities.
These open universities have liberal admissions
policies and the vast majority of their
students study part-time and are over the
age of 24. Programs are designed for home
study and use printed materials, audio and
video tapes, television and teleconferencing,
supported by part-time telephone tutors.
The demand
for distance learning isn’t limited
to Canada; there is a growing demand in
other countries around the globe. I recently
had the occasion to speak with Rita Verma,
Minister of State for Human Resource Development
in India. Verma, speaking of our distance
learning programs, said: “You have
the programs; we have the numbers.”
We have incredible opportunities to bring
Canadian distance education to the world.
B. Diversity
But we have
more than just programs. We have something
special - something not many other countries
have to offer. In a few words: diversity,
inclusiveness and respect for “otherness.”
We have succeeded in addressing many challenges
the rest of the world is now only beginning
to face. We’ve been successful in building
an accepting, diverse, sophisticated society.
We understand the world because much of
the world and its languages live within
our borders. Consequently, we have no choice
but to think and act as international citizens.
This is what makes our educational products,
programs and services so attractive, particularly
given our thrust towards a knowledge-based
economy.
C. Mobility
There’s
not only a movement of ideas and know-how;
there’s also a movement of people,
particularly in education. We are working
in many ways to encourage Canadian education
to be more international and to bring Canada
to the world. There are two components to
this: (1) bringing more international students
and academics to Canada; and (2) encouraging
more Canadian students and academics to
study or work abroad.
Bringing
International Students and Academics to
Canada
Our success
will be based in part on our ability to
attract the brightest people, ideas, and
learning to our shores. While the actual
number of spaces available for foreign students
is a policy decision taken at the institutional
level, I don’t think anyone would dispute
that the benefits are undeniable and the
potential presents an opportunity for us
all. Bringing foreign students and academics
to Canada fosters friendships and contacts,
creates lifelong ambassadors and internationalizes
Canadian campuses. On top of that, last
year’s student recruitment brought
in $4.3 billion for Canada.
It’s
not surprising. We have an excellent product
to sell. Canadian technical institutes,
colleges and universities are world-class.
In engineering alone, Canada lays claim
to 18 of North America's 40 leading engineering
schools - this, despite the fact that we
are a country with a population one-tenth
the size of the US. We also offer another
valuable intangible - an excellent and highly
competitive quality of life. Canada, for
example, offers a safe and welcoming environment,
reasonable costs, and a beautiful country
to explore. We are an attractive, sophisticated
and exciting place to live. I hope you’ve
all read Satya Das’ new book, The Best
Country. It’s a good gift for non-Canadians.
We have an accepting and multicultural society
which values newcomers. In short, we attract
students by who we are, and by doing so
we spread the word to others.
Recruiting
students, as everyone here knows, is not
like selling laptops or PCs. We are not
selling goods. We are, instead, inviting
people to come here to spend some of the
most important years of their lives - living
with us, learning from us, absorbing the
best Canada has to offer.
There is
a lot of competition out there for foreign
students, and we are relatively successful
in meeting the challenge. How are we doing
that? First and foremost, by promoting our
Canadian identity abroad:
·
Our Government Online initiative makes information
about Canada available to anyone who has
access to the Internet - whether they be
casual enquirers, schoolchildren, researchers,
academics, students, or interested parents.
·
Our network of Canadian Education Centres
around the world brings information about
Canadian education directly to the students/parents
who need it.
·
Over the past 27 years, we have also established
an active program of Canadian Studies in
other countries. Today, we have more than
7000 Canadianists in over 30 countries promoting
all things Canadian. Last March, in fact,
I spoke to the Canadian Studies Institute
at the University of New South Wales in
Sydney, Australia. In January, I hope to
address the Association of Canadian Studies
in India.
Then, of
course, there are your individual initiatives.
Canadian institutions are breaking new ground
in cooperative endeavors. Several have partner
or satellite schools in China, for example,
which impart Canadian ideas and values and
prepare students for study in Canada.
Encouraging
More Canadian Students to Study and Work
Abroad
It is equally
important that we encourage Canadian students
to study, travel or work abroad. Again,
we are already doing this well, but there
are opportunities to do better:
·
The Youth International Internship Program
(YIIP) provides students with career-related
work experience in dozens of countries around
the globe.
·
On a more informal level, the Working Holiday
Program (WHP) and the Student Work Abroad
Program (SWAP) provide young people with
opportunities to travel and work in other
countries. Last year, more than 36,000 young
people traveled between Canada and about
20 other countries.
·
Many colleges and universities have exchange
terms that allow their students to take
part of their education abroad.
Many people,
of course, worry about “brain drain,”
but the risk is more than offset by the
value gained by those who return. If we
have the jobs and opportunities in Canada,
they’ll come back. Research is a perfect
example. Many of the holders of research
chairs at Canadian universities are expatriates
who returned for the opportunity of conducting
world-class research ... here.
Co-operation
at All Levels
A. Universities
If we’re
to be as successful as we can be, we need
ensure that the educational institutions,
the private sector, and our federal and
provincial governments work together. Canadian
universities have taken up the call, fostering
international cooperation at the broadest
levels:
·
According to the AUCC, Canadian universities
were involved in nearly 1,800 international
exchange agreements as of 1996, ranging
from student exchanges with more than 100
colleges of art and design to faculty exchanges
and joint research in the many sub-disciplines
of engineering.
·
Twinning arrangements allows partner institutions
to offer parts of each other’s university
curriculum to one another and to adopt teaching
formats, texts and evaluation standards
as models.
·
Up to 1995, Canadian universities and partner
institutions in the developing world cooperated
in more than 2000 international development
projects, ranging from agriculture to water
sciences and involving faculty, researchers,
students and administrators.
·
The Partnership for Knowledge (PK4), which
was started by the Canadian High Commission
in London and held a successful meeting
in Edmonton, brings together academics and
business leaders in the UK and Canada to
develop programs for academic mobility and
cooperation.
B. Government
The federal
and provincial governments must work closely
together. We have solid working relationships
in international education with the Council
of Ministers of Education and all the provinces
and territories. I cannot do justice here
to the many programs of cooperation and
mobility that Canadian provinces have with
other countries, but I’d to highlight
the excellent relations our department has
with the Alberta ministries and with the
ACIE.
Alberta’s
Ministry of Learning’s international
education strategy has served as a model
for opportunities for preparing Albertans
for the global economy, for economic gains
from student recruitment and for providing
high quality and competitive education internationally.
We are working closely with the ACIE both
directly and through our partnership in
organizing a round table of provincial and
federal education marketing agencies which
meets to share best practices and exchange
information.
This is only
one example. Another is the Education Marketing
Advisory Board (EMAB), with representatives
from the federal and provincial governments,
educational institutions and the private
sector. EMAB is a national forum that allows
stakeholders to exchange views on how Canada
can be more successful at marketing its
educational assets. Hopefully, after not
having met for a couple of years, we’ll
see the Board in early December, chaired
by my colleague, Pierre Pettigrew, the Minister
for International Trade.
Our universities
are actively recruiting international students.
The numbers speak for themselves: In 1998
there were 77,480 student visa holders in
Canada. In 2001 there were 133,021. To this
should be added at least 75,000 students
in Canada for shorter terms that do not
require visas.
But we cannot
look at the picture too narrowly. Challenges
remain. There are, of course, issues that
we need to work on if we are to be as successful
as we can be, including immigration and
visa questions, affordability and cost,
and transferability of credit and degree
recognition, to name a few. The provincial
and federal governments need to work closer
together. Educational institutes need to
develop a stronger presence abroad.
We need to
continue looking outward. I think we’d
all agree that Canada is in a great position
to take advantage of the new knowledge-based
economy, and I look forward to hearing your
views and working with you to make it happen.
Thank you.
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