Canada

Talent shows, sports activities and home-cooked meals were among the events taking place across Canada last week as part of Languages Canada's first annual World Student Day organised to raise awareness of the cultural and economic benefits international students bring to the country.

Canada’s Minister for Employment has laid clear that Canada is looking to profit from the US’s current immigration stalemate by making it easier for talented foreign graduates to find work and gain residency. “We’re seeking very deliberately to benefit from the dysfunctional American immigration system,” he said.

The Canadian Bureau for International Education and Colleges and Institutes Canada are two of the latest Canadian international education associations to win funding from the government’s Global Opportunities for Associations programme for the year 2014-15.

Canada’s language sector has suffered a damaging blow due to 2012’s Foreign Service Officer strike and new regulations to the country’s International Student Programme. The second annual Languages Canada member survey show numbers dropped 9.3%, which represented a decrease of overall student numbers for Canada from 142,931 in 2012 to 129,704 in 2013.

At the fifth annual Summer Seminar of the British Columbia Council for International Education (BCCIE) in Canada, pathway programmes and increasing partnerships between secondary and post-secondary institutions were discussed as being integral to the province’s sustainable growth.

Distinguished education leaders from around Canada and abroad were able to congratulate the latest winners of the BCCIE's International Education Awards this week, during a gala event at the Four Seasons Hotel in Vancouver. Winners represented private and public education sectors and were selected by a peer committee.

The use of education agents is widespread across all sectors of Canada's education systems but a new study has concluded that the more reliance providers place on education agents, the less robust their screening and training processes are, placing them in “vulnerable” positions.

Canadian public schools aren’t doing enough to promote the country’s unique French/English bilingual society new research commissioned by the Canadian Association of Public Schools - International (CAPS-I) has found. The single most significant reason high school students choose to study in Canada for French language acquisition is the country’s bilingual environment it reports.

The Association of Canadian Community Colleges has undergone a name change and re-brand to better reflect the identities of the association members it says. After 42 years, the association will now be called the Colleges and Institutes Canda (CIC) but will continue to be the voice of 95% of Canada’s publicly funded colleges, institutes and polytechnics.

Canada's University of Windsor is facing a legal battle with Higher-Edge, a student recruitment firm suing the university for $24.1 million over approaches to its employees and to international students directly. Higher-Edge runs the Canadian University Application Centre in various countries.

Hundreds of staff and many language students were left in limbo following the sudden closure of the established L’Estrie Language School in Canada earlier this year. Thanks to Languages Canada all students on language training programmes were able to continue their studies elsewhere.

Canada is a good news story in international education and we are all working hard to keep it that way

ICEF has celebrated its 100th Canada Course Graduate, which is a specialised training course for education agents that wish to display sound knowledge of Canada as a study destination. A Colombian agent became the fourth from his company to complete the CCEA.

The Canadian federal government has announced CAN$10.5 million of funding for English as a Second Language (ESL) programmes for new migrants in British Columbia (BC), as part of a wider move to centralise management of services for new immigrants.

Educators in Canada have voiced opposition to tough new regulations prohibiting them from offering visa advice to international students. Only registered consultants registered will be allowed to give advice related to visa issues, with penalties reaching $100,000 or two years' imprisonment.