Canada’s international student boom went from success to liability over just a few years. Policymakers that promoted the growth are now suddenly passing blame, presenting it as an overwhelming surprise. It turns out the growth was the intended outcome of a $148 million plan, including a new brand jointly owned and operated by the Federal, Provincial, and Territorial Governments. Policymakers are now presenting new limits as a response to public outcry, coincidentally in the same year the strategy ended. What timing!
EduCanada, Canada’s State-Owned Foreign Student Recruiting Machine
Formed in 2016, EduCanada is a state-owned brand to promote international study. It’s jointly owned by Global Affairs and the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC). For those unaware, Global Affairs is Canada’s version of the State Department in the US. The CMEC is a collective group representing the provinces’ and territories’ interests in the plan. In other words, this is a joint project between the Federal Government, Provinces, and Territories.
The idea is the brand’s spanking new website will be the central tool to attract international students. It didn’t really take off until the International Education Strategy (2019-2024).
Canada’s International Education Strategy Sought To Grow Its Global Influence Via International Students
Canada didn’t just suddenly decide 2024 was the year they would change course on international students. It was the exciting conclusion of a successful campaign called the International Education Policy (2019-2024), aka IEP (2019-2024). The $148 million plan focused on using education as a tool to grow the country’s influence in key regions, exporting curriculums and boosting the international student population.
In addition to targeting growth in countries that already provided a stream, they also had a strategic list of priority countries. The agency would target growth in Brazil, Columbia, France, Indonesia, Mexico, Morocco, the Phillipines, Thailand, Turkey, the Ukraine, and Vietnam. An interesing selection of regions to desire influence, but that’s a topic for another day.
“If they [international students] choose to immigrate to Canada, they contribute to Canada’s economic success. Those who choose to return to their countries become life-long ambassadors for Canada and for Canadian values,” explained MP James Gordon, Minister of International Trade Diversification, announcing the International Education Strategy (2019-2024).
The idea resembles the Soviet-era strategy of gaining influence by creating diaspora communities. However, it was more like an inbound version—the students study in Canada and thus stronger international bonds are formed (no one wants to argue with the country their kids live in), or they move back and tell everyone how great it was. Not a bad idea, but it also has the reverse impact—if they have a bad experience, it amplifies the idea that this is a type of inbound colonialism.
Canada’s Source of International Students Is Quickly Shifting
The top three source countries for study permit holders in Canada.
Source: IRCC; Better Dwelling.
A central part of the IEP (2019-2024) was to “fully capitalize” the brand EduCanada. They would then operate a digital campaign, outsourcing a $24.1 million budget to run targeted ads over 5 years, and scale up to $5.4 million per year going forward.
Canada’s $24 Million Digital Campaign To Recruit Foreign Students
Most of us already know the digital campaign was a massive success. A representative from Global Affairs provided a breakdown of the outsourced ad campaign, and notes it came in significantly under budget.
In the 2022-2023 school year, a budget of $2 million resulted in 6,900 leads from the EduCanada website. That worked out to roughly $290 per potential student. By the 2023-2024 year campaign, the budget was cut to $700k but managed to generate 6,800 leads, dropping the cost to $103 per potential student.
Cossette Media was contracted to run the campaign until August 2024. It’s unclear if the contract was renewed, especially since it appears the Committee on Foreign Investment In The United States (CFIUS) isn’t fond of Cossette Media’s Hong Kong-based parent company. Back in 2018, the parent company stated the CFIUS was unwilling to approve the acquisition of a US-based data analytics company.
Canada Also Has A Plan To Process More Students Even Faster
The current narrative from policymakers at all levels is that the increase in international students was unexpected. However, the IEP’s budget appears to have actually made significant investments to scale student inflows. The IEP also included funds to expand traditional student acquisition streams and streamline the anticipated increased processing.
Canada’s Student Direct Stream program is an example. It’s a program that seeks to expedite student permits if they have provincial or territorial approval. The program was already operating in China, the Phillipines, and Vietnam. The IEP adds another $1 million to help roll the program out to other countries.
Canada also needed a lot more processing power to approve all of the expected students. The IEP allocated an additional $`18 million to the IRCC to streamline the processing of temporary resident applications.
Policymakers are now passing blame for the international student surge. It paints a picture of a chaotic, clumsy mess of authority that was unaware of what was happening and how it occurred. However, it was actually a very well orchestrated plan involving multi-stakeholders, along with Federal, Provincial, and Territorial engagement along the way. They didn’t just know how out-of-control the growth became, but played an active role in building it.
If they were playing dumb, that also brings up questions about the sudden concerns. New limits are being presented as a response to public concerns, but the plan was always supposed to wrap up in August 2024. The newly presented limits largely seek to preserve the rapid scale up, not reduce it. In other words, this isn’t a response but exactly where they were hoping the volume would be.
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