The Globe's biweekly business-school news roundup.
Canada ranks fourth as a global destination for international business students (behind the United States, Britain and Australia), but lags in marketing its strengths as a relatively low-cost, immigrant-friendly place to study and work, according to the results of a new survey.
"It's a missed opportunity," says Andrew Crisp, co-founder of CarringtonCrisp, a London-based education marketing and consulting firm that surveyed almost 4,000 undergraduate and graduate business students in more than 100 countries last October. The results were released this month.
"Canada has one of the best potential offers to international students of any country in the world in terms of the opportunity to study and work after [in Canada]," says Mr. Crisp.
His firm released the findings on business schools in advance of its larger report next year on university-wide branding initiatives.
Survey respondents were asked their impressions of Canada, Britain, India, Japan and Brazil based on the affordability of a business degree, immigration policies, opportunities to work after graduation and quality of education. Canada's competitive strengths, including quality institutions, low dollar and postgraduation employment, were not fully recognized by respondents.
For example, Britain scored top marks for ease of getting a visa and opportunities to work after graduation, despite a clamp-down this year that includes a ban on non-European Community students from postgraduation employment. Canada placed second, but offers more generous opportunities than Britain for graduates to stay and work so long as they obtain a permit.
Citing the growth in host country restrictions on poststudy work options for foreign students as well as a slowing Chinese economy, Mr. Crisp says, "There are question marks in other parts of the world that should benefit Canada."
Daphne Taras, chairwoman of the Canadian Federation of Business School Deans, says the survey is most revealing for the lack of knowledge about Canada among respondents.
"People have a vague sense it is a nice, cold country but they know a lot more about the U.K.," says Dr. Taras, dean of the Edwards School of Business at the University of Saskatchewan. "We should be doing much more impression management."
But is a collective marketing response by Canadian business schools in the cards?
Not likely, says Dr. Taras. One reason is that responsibility for branding Canada is a joint effort of the federal government's Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (recently renamed Global Affairs Canada), the provinces and territories, and postsecondary institutions.
Many, Mr. Crisp included, say the "Imagine Canada" brand, introduced in 2008 to promote the quality of a Canadian postsecondary education, needs to be refreshed. At the annual meeting of the business deans last October, Mr. Crisp noted the confusion surrounding the education brand: Plug "Imagine Canada" into a Google search, as he did, and up pops the website for Imagine Canada, a national non-profit organization for philanthropy.
Even without collective action, Dr. Taras says business schools can expand strategies to raise their profile with potential foreign students.
"We could make our websites speak more to international students," she says, with information that plays to Canadian strengths, such as co-op education programs that blend study and work, giving all students direct access to employers. She says schools also can – and should – do more to integrate foreign students into the fabric of Canadian life, including the delights of winter.
At the University of Victoria's Gustavson School of Business, dean Saul Klein says the challenge is not in attracting foreign students but in selecting the right mix to ensure they and their Canadian counterparts learn from each other in and outside the classroom.
"I don't think Chinese students want to come to Canada to be in a class full of Chinese students," he says. At Gustavson, by design, international students account for no more than 20 to 25 per cent of the undergraduate population.
For example, Gustavson operates a buddy system to pair up domestic and foreign students. As well, students work in multicultural teams on class projects, with coaching on how to adapt to cultural and other differences.
"We are very sensitive to the kind of balance of international versus domestic students and where they [international students] come from to make sure they don't feel like they are coming into an international ghetto," he says.
Mr. Crisp says Canadian schools can carry on as they are and still attract foreign students. But he sees an opening for Canada to take advantage of a volatile global picture on recruitment, with security concerns, education costs and poststudent opportunities all top issues for prospective students from abroad.
"The very strong message is get out there and tell the world," he advises Canadian schools. "If you do, the rewards could be fantastic in terms of student applications."
Professor wins book proposal prize
A prize for the best book proposal by an author under 35 has been awarded to Andras Tilcsik, an assistant professor of strategic management at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, and co-author Christopher Clearfield, according to a press release from the school.
Their book proposal on how to manage the risks of catastrophic failure won the Financial Times/McKinsey Award for Young Business Writers.
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Contact Jennifer at jlewington@bell.net
Jennifer Lewington