Former chair of the Canadian Bureau for International Education and current president of Regina University, Vianne Timmons talks with The PIE News about leading a top-down internationalisation strategy, being a woman in international education and Canada as a study destination.
The PIE: Tell me about the changes you’ve seen at Regina over the last five years since you’ve been president.
VT: The University of Regina has transformed in many ways over that time, but I am perhaps most proud of what has taken place in terms of diversity on campus. International students now represent close to 12% of our student population, and approximately 11% of our students have self-declared as Aboriginal – a substantial increase over years past. In addition, we are providing services to more students with disabilities than ever before, which is a further indication that our campus is really emerging as and transforming into an inclusive one for all students.
The PIE: And that was because of a conscious effort on your part?
VT: It is because of a conscious effort on the part of everyone at our university and in our larger community. With input from students, faculty, staff, alumni and members of community and government, the University developed a strategic plan in 2009. This collectively developed document identified being an inclusive campus as one of our major goals. So that was where we put many of our efforts, and it has been one of those all-too-rare initiatives when you put efforts into something that’s identified in the strategic plan and it materialises better than you could have hoped. Since 2008 our enrolment has increased by 15%, and the majority of that enrolment growth is a result of our increasingly diverse population.
The PIE: How big is the student population now?
VT: When I began it was around 11,000, and now it’s approximately 13,500, with about 1,700 international students, including those in our English as a Second Language programme. So more than 12% of the student population is international, building on a tradition that began in the 1970s when the University first got involved in internationalisation. The University of Regina was one of the first universities to sign an agreement with China in 1979 when that country opened its doors. So the University of Regina is an institution whose vision I inherited, and which had a strong foundation on which I could help build.
The PIE: Many institutions say a challenge to internationalisation is that it’s often a bottom up effort, at Regina that’s not the case so what challenges have you faced?
We put a bursary in place that gives CAN$1,000 to any domestic student who wants an international experience
VT: What we’ve done well is invest in support for our international students. What we haven’t done as well is support our faculty. Because we’ve increased the numbers so much, it’s being felt at the classroom level. When we invest in supports for international students, some faculty feel that happens at the cost of investing in tenured faculty. And faculty members are saying for the first time that they find it challenging teaching students who don’t have English as a first language. But I would totally stand behind the fact that investments in our international students are good investments.
The PIE: What kind of advice would you give other leaders of institutions who are looking to internationalise?
VT: It’s not going to happen if you don’t invest in it. We made a deliberate investment in internationalisation, and we centralised all of our efforts on recruitment and international student support. But you also need to be very conscious of your domestic students, because internationalisation is not about just recruiting international students. We put a bursary in place that gives CAN$1,000 to any domestic student who wants an international experience. We’ve encouraged faculty and staff to look at international study opportunities, and we’ve signed many partnerships where students can go and study for a term abroad.
You also need to look at the diversity of your international student population so that it’s more reflective. If you’re truly a campus where students can get an international education in their own backyard, then you have to pay attention to your international student needs. I’m very proud of the fact, for example that we recently installed in a Muslim footbath and Muslim prayer room. At the same time we have gender-neutral bathrooms. So we’re promoting and accommodating diversity in its most global sense.
The PIE: How does Regina sell itself?
What we’ve done well is invest in support for our international students. What we haven’t done as well is support our faculty
VT: One of the things that’s a cornerstone to the university is experiential learning. We have a very significant co-op programme in 51 disciplines, and international students are absolutely welcome and encouraged to participate in that. We have more than 800 students who do co-op every term. It gives our students a real opportunity to connect with community and industry through programmes in which they undertake paid work internships for credit.
We also have the UR Guarantee programme for domestic and international students that assigns students a mentor and obliges them to do different activities each year, academic support programmes they must take and as they progress through their degree, we work with them on interview skills and provide networking opportunities for them . It costs nothing but it connects students immediately in a network.
When these students graduate, we work with them for six months to find a job in their field of study. If they’re not successful, we welcome them back and they can take up to 10 additional courses, and we cover their tuition so that they can fill out their resume if they feel they are missing something – a minor in another discipline, for example. It’s about engaging students right away, especially international students, and having them participate in campus life.
The PIE: Did the Foreign Service Officer strike have any affect on your enrolments?
VT: We exceeded our goal in terms of international student numbers, so we can’t show any tangible impacts of it, but we don’t know how much international enrolment would have gone up without the strike. Subjectively we hear that students faced challenges in getting their visas, but I think that’s an issue in Canada, period. Our international students who want to come to Canada are disadvantaged because of the cumbersome visa processing, and that’s probably Canada’s greatest challenge.
The PIE: How do you incorporate the indigenous student population into your international strategy?
Our international students who want to come to Canada are disadvantaged because of the cumbersome visa processing, and that’s probably Canada’s greatest challenge
VT: Saskatchewan is a province that has a high number of indigenous students. At the University of Regina, approximately 11% of our population is self-identified as Aboriginal. That’s very high compared to other campuses across Canada. We want to make sure that all our students get an international experience, but for many of our Aboriginal students that is very difficult especially, if they come from more impoverished communities and families.
Many of them are single mums with children, for example. We have to be very explicit about the need to provide support for these students. What I’ve done from the president’s office is provide a grant for indigenous students to go on international exchanges. Two students we supported to go to China. At the same time, we had five students go to Mexico. I think in particular for aboriginal students, when they connect with other indigenous populations around the world, it’s a common ground for them.
The PIE: There aren’t many female leaders in international education. What’s been your experience?
In internationalisation and in women’s leadership in post-secondary education, we’ve got a long way to go
VT: Being a woman president is a challenge in itself, and being a woman in international education compounds that in a way. There are many countries in which I travel where I have to be very careful in the way I dress, and in the way I interact with people. That’s interesting for me as a woman from Canada, and also as a woman who feels very strongly that oppression isn’t a cultural or religious right. But my job is to support my institution, so as a woman leader, when I get in situations where perhaps women are not respected as as I am used to them being, I have to manage and do the best to suppress that outrage I sometimes feel.
In internationalisation and in women’s leadership in post-secondary education, we’ve got a long way to go. I hear people say, “We’ve come so far,” but I’d say that we really haven’t. I have a different view on how far we’ve come.
The generation before us – our mums – came far, and we’re stagnating in terms of where we’re going. We need to speak the truth and say that having 16 female university presidents out of 94 in Canada is unacceptable in this day and age. Nobody can tell me there aren’t qualified women out there. I see so many young women enter the field of internationalisation, and they’re passionate and idealistic. Maybe they will be the ones to make the breakthrough that we haven’t been able to do yet.
The PIE: Canada is quite fragmented because of competition among provinces, how do you see that affecting it as a study destination?
VT: It is fragmented, however one of our gifts in Canada is that our institutions are primarily public and they are all of high quality. The homogeneous quality across the country is our strength. Students have the ability to transfer not as quite as seamlessly as I would like, but their credentials are held in high regard no matter what institution they attend.
