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

And, despite still trailing Ontario in terms of student numbers, panel discussions from heavyweights in international education affirmed the province’s ambitions to compete on a global scale.

“Our goal is to create more seamless transitions between the language sector, K-12 and post secondary”

“Every time you have students making the decision to stay or go, that’s when you’re going to lose them so our goal is to create more seamless transitions between the language sector, K-12 and post-secondary,” Randall Martin, Executive Director of BCCIE told The PIE News.

Presenting research on student pathways at the event, Daniel Guhr, Managing Director of the Illuminate Consulting Group (ICG) revealed that only 11% of university students had previously studied in the province. “It’s clear there’s more to be done,” he said.

ICG also released a commissioned intelligence report on the province’s international education market.

High living costs and competition from institutions in other provinces as well as the neighbouring US present the largest challenges to student retention and growth, according to the report.

However it states that increasing “utilisation of better-integrated pathways will offset some of the pressures”.

“You need to be out there articulating to students and parents that an investment in K-12 education is a stepping stone into higher education,” Guhr told delegates.

“Pathways can offer a potent counterweight to the high cost of living and integrating students early will make them less likely to move to competitor destinations.”

Since 2010, British Columbia has seen international student enrolments increase by 20% to 112,800. Almost half are studying at the university level.

Elementary and secondary schools are also responsible for a notable amount of enrolments, driven mostly by recruitment success in China.

“We’re beginning to see significant maturation in the sector,” said Martin, adding that almost half of the conference’s 300 delegates were “first timers”.

Global perspectives were brought to the seminar’s provincial audience via topline presenters

Minister for Advanced Education, Amrik Virk, spoke at the event and expressed his confidence that the sector is well on its way to meeting its international education strategy goals of increasing international students by 50% by 2016, a boost of 47,000 students.

“We’re close, we’re going to get there,” he commented.

Global perspectives were brought to the seminar’s provincial audience via topline presenters including Fanta Aw, president of NAFSA; Jennifer Humphries of the the Canadian Bureau of International Education; Gordon Cheung immediate past president of APAIE; Hans-Georg van Liempd, president of EAIE; Markus Badde, CEO of ICEF; and John Hudzik, NAFSA Senior Scholar for Internationalisation.

Meanwhile, the trade commissioner to India, Ivy Lenrner-Frank, and Yu Changxue, Education Consul for the Chinese Consulate General in Vancouver, led discussions on producing qualified Canadians to fill Asia-related jobs.

Participants in a mentorship programme, launched last year to support the upcoming leaders in the sector, were also recognised in Vancouver this week.

Founded in 1991, BCCIE is a Crown Corporation reporting to the Ministry of Advanced Education representing public and private language, K-12, technical, secondary and post-secondary providers.