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INTERNATIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION

Internationalizing Canada's Universities

Roopa Desai Trilokekar and Glen A. Jones
Roopa Desai Trilokekar is a doctoral student and Glen A. Jones is a professor in the Higher Education Group at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, 252 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S1V6. E-mail: gjones@oise.utorontol.ca. This article reflects some of the discussions at a recent conference on Internationalizing Canada's Universities: Practices, Challenges and Opportunities, held at York University (Toronto) in March 2006.

In Canada education is the responsibility of the provinces, and unlike many other federal systems, no national ministry or legislation exists that establishes a national framework for higher education. Several federal departments invest in specific international education program initiatives within their overall policy framework. For example, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, as part of its public diplomacy portfolio, supports bilateral educational exchange agreements, international scholarship programs, the Canadian studies initiatives abroad, international youth programs, and international marketing initiatives. The Department of Human Resources and Social Development Canada invests in international academic mobility programs within North America and Europe. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) contributes to university international initiatives by funding development projects?for example, through the University Partnerships in Cooperation and Development program. More recently, through its new Canada Corps initiative, CIDA supports international internships for students and joint projects delivering governance programming in developing countries engaging both faculty and students in Canada and partner countries. Several other federal departments such as Industry Canada and Citizenship and Immigration Canada also contribute to the overall international education and research portfolio.

While a range of federal departments support initiatives in this area, the overall level of federal government support is extremely modest. In a 1994, report the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade estimated that Canada's per capita investment in international cultural relations and education was CDN$3.08, while France spent CDN$26.58, Germany CDN$18.49, United Kingdom CDN$13.37, and Japan CDN$12.60. International student recruitment receives almost no support and the budgets for international scholarship programs are frequently threatened.

The Canadian system needs to provide policy coordination and communication across federal departments and agencies. The absence of a federal ministry with responsibility for higher education means that leadership in this policy area becomes an enormous challenge.

Federal-Provincial Relations and Responsibilities
While education is the responsibility of the provinces under the Canadian Constitution, the federal government plays a major role in a variety of policy areas that intersect with the internationalization agenda?including research and development?and has explicit responsibility for Canada's international relations. Federal and provincial governments find themselves, almost constantly, in conflict over issues of territory and responsibility for international education.

While most provinces have developed some form of international education policy or invested in specific initiatives, these initiatives have emerged independently of one another without an overall national framework or policy context or a "Canadian" brand. The initiatives are regional in their objectives and approaches. A classic example is the provincial government of Quebec, which is one of the larger investors given its unique rationale and approach to international education and cultural programs. Without a formal "Canadian" policy approach to internationalization, what is defined as a Canadian approach is in fact a piecemeal combination of various federal and provincial departmental initiatives. Further, given the Canadian federal context, governments are cautious in considering any national policy that would facilitate pan-Canada funding and program initiatives.

Canadian University Approaches
Since Canadian universities operate within a highly decentralized policy environment, each institution constructs its own institutional policy framework. Institutions vary in terms of the role of internationalization in strategic plans and priorities, the level of institutional investment, and the overall approach. At some institutions internationalization approaches are being critically examined within the context of broader pedagogical principles, in particular their relation to aboriginal, diasporic, and postcolonial education. Both curriculum and teaching practices are challenged, and strengthened, to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse domestic student body, while also attempting to internationalize higher education. The ethics of "internationalization" is a core debate at several Canadian campuses as the agenda for internationalization expands to include newer stakeholder groups from government and the public sector with a more neoliberal agenda.

Contested in part by the task of defining and articulating this complex phenomenon, internationalization also relates to the Canadian challenge of addressing the needs of an increasingly diverse, multicultural, and multiracial domestic student population. The boundaries between international/global and local objectives begin to blur.

Lack of a National Policy Framework
Most universities would concur that the absence of national funding and policy initiatives weakens their ability to accomplish objectives. For example, with international marketing efforts, universities operate with little if any organizational and structural support at the provincial or national level. The Canadian Educational Centers established by the Canadian federal government, based on Australia's educational centers model, have now become private nonprofit enterprises. Unlike most developed countries, Canada lacks official educational and cultural centers, other than the ad hoc activities sponsored by individual Canadian missions abroad. Canadian universities depend on their own resources to establish credibility and market educational resources, even though the Canadian government at both the federal and provincial levels has determined international educational marketing as a key strategic priority. Canadian institutions receive limited national funding to promote international scholarship and research, international study programs, or international student mobility.

A diverse range of institutional practices and initiatives have emerged in a way that a focused, directive national policy framework might have prevented from occurring. In some respects Canada's federal structure may act as a buffer and essentially prevent governments from directly steering international educational policy objectives and outcomes.

Internationalization as a Policy Agenda
Internationalization seldom represents an issue of higher education policy. In fact, the international education and higher education policy communities in Canada remain relatively distinct. Discussion of internationalization and higher educational policy occurs in separate silos. As in the European Union and several other jurisdictions, internationalization of higher education has to be addressed within the overall framework of Canadian higher educational policy. Canada needs to engage higher educational policymakers and researchers in the debate and discussion on internationalization and to integrate internationalization into higher education policy.

[Online] Available: http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/soe/cihe/newsletter/Number46/p12_Trilokekar_Jones.htm