Fifty education delegates from British Columbia, Canada, joined the province’s largest ever trade mission to India and China last month in an ongoing drive to attract international students.
The representatives, all from post-secondary institutions, visited cities such as Shanghai and New Delhi where they signed 30 agreements increasing academic collaboration and student exchange.
The University of British Columbia also announced the opening of two offices in India which will enable it to build ties with country’s private and public sectors.
BC Premier Christy Clarke, who led the mission, said: “British Columbia post-secondary institutions are working hard to build and expand important partnerships in [the region], knowing that international students bring social and cultural benefits to our communities.
“They also help create jobs and generate other substantial economic benefits for our communities.”
Clarke has made international education a key plank of her plan to boost jobs and growth in British Columbia, and wants to double the number of international students in the province to 188,000 by 2015.
Of the 39,000 international students who attended British Columbia post-secondary institutions last year, approximately 12,500 came from China and 1,600 from India. Many more took language and non-tertiary programmes.
The delegation representing education was the largest on the trade mission, which included a further 100 representatives from export sectors such as mining and forestry.