EG: The idea is that even after the multiculturalism Act of 1988, most public schools in Canada haven’t been able to deal with the needs of Chinese international students or other international students. They tend to put them into a very watered-down system called ESL, so they’re simply not prioritised in the system, because public schools need to take care of local needs, right?

So the inspiration of our school is to be able to fully accomplish the directives of the Multiculturalism Act, which says [we] take care of all our new citizens.

“International students are simply not prioritised in the system, because public schools need to take care of local needs, right?”

The PIE: Interesting, tell me more.

EG: So Chinese students come here, they meet friends and then go off to a very good university, without which they could possibly not get a job in Canada in competition with locals. So that’s our basic platform.

We have an integrated education system that basically looks after both credit course and IELTS or TOEFL test preparation. So we have a course that’s uniquely designed to satisfy that need. And our tutors care for our students’ TOEFL and IELTS needs and university application needs.

The PIE: How many students do you have?

EG: Around 150, and we teach grades 9-12.

The PIE: So when was the college founded?

EG: The international colleges [operated by New Oriental] were founded in 2004. Twelve years ago Michael Yu, the founder of New Oriental Education & Technology Group in China, wanted to travel to establish a training and preparation facility in Beijing, and gradually it became larger and the age group of Chinese international students went from postgrad and university to high school, and that’s what motivated the creation of the high school in Canada.

We have three sites and one boarding facility in Ontario.

The PIE: And do you recruit students here in China?

EG: That’s right. New Oriental [the consulting and recruitment arm of the same company] in China helps our high school with recruitment and admissions.

The PIE: Are they guaranteed entry to university?

EG: We have guaranteed university entry packages, but those are very special in terms of the number of students admitted because they’re very competitive. To go to the University of Calgary’s downtown campus, you’d need maybe a 5.5 on the IELTS within a year, in order to get our students on par with domestic students.

So a lot of our students get admittance from U of C, but only a few to the downtown campus. It can be very difficult for students to get into those programmes given their English level. There are very good students from China that go to our school and they’re very competitive in Maths and Chemistry and Physics.

About 25% of our students annually are admitted to the University of Waterloo and respected programmes like Computer Science and Engineering. Stephen Hawking was teaching at Waterloo a couple years back in the physics department, and Microsoft and Google annually recruit from the university for computer sciences. So some of our students do make it big.

The PIE: Are those subjects usually the most popular options for students going on to university?

EG: Most of the parents of our students are millionaires from China so they’re business-oriented and they want their kids to go to the right business schools. Every now and again we get kids who want to go into social scieces, which is trendy right now. A lot more leaders went to study law, social sciences, history, things like that.

The PIE: What is a typical student profile at your school?

EG: Very well educated, however with the culture of modern China. Chinese students will usually take a couple of months to adjust to Canada. It’s painful but it’s much easier for them to do that in our school where there are many more familiar faces as opposed to a school that’s predominantly local.

“I think America, Australia, New Zealand are great for this kind of model because of their multicultural policies, both locally and federally”

The PIE: Do they board at the school?

EG: Yes they can. We share our boarding with Seneca College.

The PIE: Can you see this model being rolled out to other countries?

EG: I think America, Australia, New Zealand are great for this kind of model because of their multicultural policies, both locally and federally. I don’t think such a model would exist in European states… maybe London. I can’t possibly imagine it opening in, say, the Czech Republic!