Canada

A leading arts & technology college in Canada has opened a new international centre which it has named in honour of benefactor Keith Segal and his family. The 8,000 square-foot facility at Niagara College will help accommodate a growing international student population.

The Canadian government has unveiled "key elements" of its long awaited international education strategy, allocating CAN$23 million to supporting the plan in the latest federal budget, despite the country’s fiscal struggles. It has also promised $42 million to speed up visa processing.

Canadian language schools are facing uncertainty over new proposals to tighten up the student visa system. One concern is a requirement that provinces decide which educators can and cannot accept foreign students, which could leave some language schools overlooked. Work-study "co-op" programmes – an important segment of the market – could also be abolished.

Continuing to expand its educational reach, the Canadian government collaborated with the Canadian Bureau for International Education for the country's first education mission to Ukraine where an overarching MoU was signed between CBIE and The Union of Rectors of Higher Educational Institutions of Ukraine.

In a bid to tackle persisting student visa delays, Canadian Immigration and Citizenship has published a list of projected processing times for different country markets, along with guidelines for students on speeding up the application process. Observers say the move will provide clarity to the market.

Public schools from across Canada will participate in their first ever trade mission to Turkey. Led by the Canadian Association of Public Schools-International (CAPS-I), the trip aims to attract high school students from Turkey and expand Canada's ties with the country. High school fees average around CAN$12,000 a year per international student.

ISIS Education, based in London, UK, has expanded its operations into North America by acquiring Vancouver Maple Leaf College Inc, which operates two English language schools in Canada under the Eurocentres brand.

A delegation of universities from the Canadian province of Nova Scotia was in the UK last week, seeking to recruit British students into the Canadian university system. They were taking advantage of the hike in tuition fees at British universities, which is seeing students increasingly look abroad.

British Columbia, which welcomes almost 30% of all international students in Canada, has refreshed the website it uses to market itself as a study destination. BC hosted 100,700 international students in 2010-11, up from 94,000 the previous year, but authorities want this to reach 150,000 by 2015.

A new immigration "matchmaking service" in Canada will connect foreign job seekers and employers in a bid to boost skilled migration – a move that could benefit international graduates of Canadian universities. CIC believes the system will eliminate application backlogs. It is one of a raft of new measures designed to attract more foreign students to the country.

Visa processing delays are hampering international recruitment efforts across the tertiary, language and schools sectors in Canada, with one institution even claiming that visa barriers forced her to close her business temporarily. Immigration and Citizenship Canada blames a surge in demand for Canadian education, but others say spending cuts are at fault.

A raft of far-reaching proposals to overhaul K-12 level international education programmes in British Columbia, Canada – including a levy on foreign students – is being mooted by the provincial government. It says the reforms will protect the reputation of BC education abroad, but many in the sector complain they have not been consulted.

The Canadian government says it will make a record 10,000 skilled foreign graduates and workers permanent residents next year by reforming the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) visa programme – an increase from 7,000 last year and 2,545 in 2009. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney confirmed that plans to expedite permanent residency applications through CEC would come into effect from January.

Canada could soon pave the way for easy access for Mexican students after Canada's Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, affirmed recently that his government would "ultimately like to see visa-free travel with Mexico". There are clear signs that a relaxing of visa rules that were imposed suddenly in 2009 because of a hike in refugees is likely.

The latest survey of business trends among language schools and education agencies by ALTO has revealed mixed business fortunes among those canvassed about their Q3 results. UK-based language schools cited a drop in business; agencies in Colombia, Turkey, Nigeria and Russia were very upbeat about Q4 (although 42% of Spanish companies took a dim view).