Simon Fraser University and Navitas, which operates the Fraser International College on the SFU campus, have signed an agreement to extend their current partnership until 2030.
Read more on the SFU blog.
Category: English Central Blog
ILAC acquires CTC and Sterling College
Mega private langauge school ILAC has aquired two British Columbia colleges : Canadian Tourism College and Sterling College. ILAC recently created a Higher Education division and will be offering programs in tourism, hospitality, nursing and business. The two colleges were acquired to strengthen this new division.
Read more on the ILAC blog.
Enrolment and graduation rates continue rising in Canada
Stats Canada recently revealed that the school year of 2017/2018 was the third consecutive year of increases in enrolment and graduation from postsecondary institutions. Our readers will not be surprised to also learn that this growth was largely attributable to international students, whose numbers increased 15.6%. The increase in domestic students was much more modest at 0.2%.
Read more from StatsCan.
The higher a student’s level, the more they blame their teacher
We remember once teaching a beginning level class at a Toronto college. At the end of the course, the students startled us with a $200 gift certificate and a lovely card signed by everone. We were amazed at this and didn’t feel truly deserving; the students had made a lot of progress, but seeing as they had almost no English, it would have been difficult for them not to.
The following month, we taught an advanced level class. There was no gift certificate that time; rather there were some complaints that we hadn’t done a good enough job. We were annoyed. Certainly, advanced students did not make as quick progress as beginners. Furthermore, advanced students have such wildly different individual needs that it is difficult to address them while still following a curriculum.
And so we read with great interest an article in the EL Gazette that summarizes recent research that shows that, indeed, as students become more proficient, they tend to blame their teacher for their slow progress (beginners tend more to blame themselves when they do not make sufficient progress).
Read the article here.
Record number of Indian students now studying in the US
In December, it was reported that the number of Indian nationals studying in the US had passed 200,000 for the first time. This is the sixth consecutive year of growth and represents 18% of all international students studying in the US.
Read more in the Free Press Journal.
Something else to feel bad about: the carbon footprint of international students
It is probably a good bet that a larger than average percentage of ELT professionals are concerned about climate change. Well, a recent article in Inside Higher Ed puts the spotlight on international education and the large carbon footprint that it has. Possible solutions are suggested – including students staying home – but that leaves ELT professionals between a rock and a hard place.
Read more on IHE.
Highlighting the exploitation of international students and foreign workers
There are several groups in Calgary that are working to raise awareness of how many international students and foreign workers are exploited in Canada.
Read more on the CBC website.
Lakehead University turns international students into ambassadors
In an effort to attract more international students, Lakehead University is turning to the international students it already has. With its Global Ambassador program, some students at Lakead will be recruited to help attract more students from their country. These students will be taught special speaking and presentation skills and will be featured on social media programs.
We are generally pretty cynical and jaded, but this sounds like a bright plan.
Read more on the CBC website.
New Brunswick courts international students snubbed by Quebec’s new immigration policy.
Only in Canada, man!
Read more on the CTV website.
After you’ve gone big, you don’t need to go home… so diversify instead.
In 2014, the Canadian federal government set the objective to add 450,000 international students by 2022. In a rare example of a government succeeding in a plan, that number was actually reached by 2018!
A small problem with this great success story is that almost half of those students are from China and India. Given the tensions in relations with China lately (and historical lessons like those of ghost towns) and the comfortable position that Canada is sitting in at this moment, the feds have set some new objectives: diversifying the international student body, increasing the number of Canadian students who go to study abroad and improving the experience of international students. All sounds good.
Read more in Maclean’s.