Maintaining Canada’s momentum as a magnet for international talent

Against the ongoing backdrop of COVID-19, Canada’s universities are once again delivering a unique fall semester. Our fall schedules are a mix of in-person, remote, and hybrid course delivery. Our campuses are enveloped in pandemic health and safety measures. As in other spheres, it feels like higher ed globally is experiencing a pivotal moment of transition. We need to ask what lies ahead for the sector in Canada. One key question is: how can we keep attracting the world’s top students to our universities? International talent has been intrinsic to Canada’s success for generations and will be even more vital to our post-pandemic recovery. But the landscape for recruitment is changing fast. The past 18 months have clouded the dreams and disrupted the plans of many students. With impediments to travel, shifting approaches to teaching and learning, and the rapid demand for new skills and expertise, students are thinking differently about the kind of education they want and reassessing the value propositions that universities have traditionally offered. For top international students, choices abound. The challenge for Canada is to emerge from the current flux with a clear, coherent message about why our universities are ideally positioned to prepare a new generation of international students for success. It’s a challenge best tackled together by universities, the federal and provincial governments, plus industry and public sector partners who benefit enormously from global talent recruitment. As the major rankings consistently affirm, Canada is home to some of the world’s top universities, both established and young. Many factors account for this success, but the global character of our student population is certainly one. At universities like Concordia, where nearly one-quarter of students are international, representing 150-plus countries, diversity is pivotal to making us innovative, entrepreneurial, and socially engaged. It’s also key to research productivity. Drawing exceptional talent from abroad to our labs, studios, and research institutes allows Canadian universities to be more productive and attractive as partners, boosting Canadian competitiveness. We also know that a high proportion of international university students hope to stay in Canada. At Concordia, where we have approximately 10,000 international students, nearly 60 per cent of graduates stayed in Quebec in recent years, and more than 70 per cent in Canada. Although the pandemic has caused much uncertainty, Canada, like the U.K., remains a top destination for international students. Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver consistently rate among the world’s best student cities. Canada offers exceptional educational opportunities and a safe, welcoming place to study. By contrast, other countries—notably Australia and the U.S.—are suffering dramatic drops in new international student enrolment. What more can Canada do to build on its success? How can government and the private sector work with universities to recruit top talent internationally? I have three proposals. First, the pandemic exposed serious operational shortcomings in Canada’s immigration programs. Antiquated paper-based processes and system redundancies slow processing times and make a bad first impression on young digital natives. To correct this, we need to support IRCC’s implementation of the $430-million streamlined, digitized visa process promised in the April 2021 federal budget. Second, governments and Canadian businesses need to double down on work-integrated learning opportunities for students. Canada is globally recognized for co-op programs and the success of Mitacs research internships. Top students flock to these programs, feeding Canada’s talent supply chain. Making work-integrated learning fully accessible to international students would be a unique recruitment advantage and pay workforce dividends post-graduation. Third, we need a bold global marketing campaign that highlights Canadian universities’ quality and celebrates our country’s values to new markets in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America that are emerging priorities for Canada. Tapping into new talent pools will make us less vulnerable to our current dependency on a handful of countries. Canadian universities deliver groundbreaking research and innovative academic programs in a country with an enviable quality of life. These attributes reflect our openness but also our indebtedness to the millions of immigrants who came to Canada and shaped it. Ultimately, recruiting top talent to Canadian universities to study, settle and succeed here is about making us a better country. Graham Carr is president and vice-chancellor of Montreal’s Concordia University. The Hill Times

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Maintaining Canada’s momentum as a magnet for international talent

It’s a challenge best tackled together by universities, the federal and provincial governments, plus industry and public sector partners who benefit enormously from global talent recruitment.

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