International students bring value to B.C. communities and campuses

If you’re a parent whose kids recently moved out or have left home to pursue post-secondary courses, you probably know the feeling: suddenly, you’re experiencing that mix of emotions as you find yourself sitting in an empty nest.

For Trish, a Victoria resident and mother of two, the kids’ moving out was also the start of a whole new set of experiences.

“It actually allowed me to open the door to international students who themselves had left family behind in places like Saudi Arabia, Brazil and Japan. They needed a welcoming place to live and, as a home stay mom, I now watch over them as if they were my own. It brings in extra money but, more significantly, I learn a lot about their culture and help them adapt to ours.”

Trish’s home-stay students are among 94,000 people from around the world who come to B.C. each year to pursue their education.

By living here, the students enrich the diversity of our communities, spend money in our towns and cities on accommodation, frequent our local stores to buy food and other necessities and support our regional economies as they travel around and experience life in B.C.

We’ve made huge leaps forward in recent years attracting international students, but B.C. is just one dot on an increasingly competitive map of countries vying for a bigger share of the international education market.

Global competition is becoming fierce. By 2025, 7.2 million students worldwide will be looking for places abroad to take classes. That’s a mobile student population three times larger than the total population of Metro Vancouver. We want more of those travelling students to strongly consider B.C. as their study destination of choice.

Why? Because, for people like Trish and thousands of other British Columbians who benefit directly and indirectly from international students, it means not only jobs and increased economic activity but also social and cultural benefits to our communities.

With stats predicting one million job openings in B.C. in the coming decade – but only about 650,000 kids coming through our school system – it will also be international students who’ll play a key role in meeting our expected labour needs. We don’t just want international students, we need them.

Not only will international students help us meet expected labour needs, but they help create opportunities for B.C. students. At Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops for example, a recent economic impact report indicates international students, all who pay their own way, have increased capacity for domestic students by 25 per cent. On the Lower Mainland, Douglas College estimates international students helped to create spaces for an additional 375 full-time domestic students this year and allowed them to hire an extra 55 faculty members plus support staff.

To prepare B.C. for the future, our government will release an international education strategy this winter which aims to build on the overseas relationships our institutions have long been cultivating – relationships which ultimately drive students to B.C.

As part of the BC Jobs Plan we’ve set a goal of increasing our overall international student count by 50 per cent over four years. To help get us there, we’ve brought together a project council, made up of representatives of public and private post-secondary institutions, the K-12 sector, past and present international students and others to gather input that will guide the development and implementation of B.C.’s strategy.

It will be a strategy which takes advantage of B.C.’s strengths. After all, we have a world-class education system, the envy of international students who look abroad for places to study, and we have deep roots in many Asia-Pacific countries, not the least of which are India and China.

Premier Christy Clark is currently leading a B.C. Jobs and Trade Mission to cities across both countries. The delegation is inking agreements which stem from relationships those B.C. institutions have long been cultivating.

Whether it is knowledge and research sharing, like the agreement struck between UBC and its Chinese-counterpart to share data gathered by the Chinese on Alzheimer’s, or recruitment focussed, such as Royal Roads’ agreement to bring 20 Chinese business people to B.C. each month to learn about our way of doing business, each deal is progressively giving B.C. an advantage over our competition.

This week, as we join countries around the world in celebrating International Education Week, B.C. has taken important new steps to build on our long standing overseas relationships and generate new ones.

For Trish, her home-stay students, and the many other British Columbians who benefit from the cultural, social or economic gains brought about by international students in communities all across B.C., it’s worth it.

By Naomi Yamamoto, B.C.’s Minister of Advanced Education

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