Peter Luk admits it’s not an easy sell.
Twice a year, the dean of Laurentian University’s management program travels to China in an attempt to persuade students and their families that Sudbury is the place for them. For most, Canada ranks below several other countries as their choice of where to study abroad. A small northern Ontario city known for nickel mining isn’t even on the radar.
And yet, with students drawn by everything from smaller class sizes to the prospect of a more “Canadian” experience than they’d get in a multicultural metropolis such as Toronto, Mr. Luk is finding takers. In 2008, his first year at Laurentian after nearly three decades at Toronto’s Ryerson University, he recruited four Chinese students. The next year, it was eight. This year, it was 25.
The trend is reflected across campus. With an aggressive recruitment strategy driven by an ambitious new administration, Laurentian reports that it received 952 international applications in 2010, more than double the total from three years earlier.
All this should warm the heart of Dalton McGuinty, who has said he wants to increase international enrolment at the province’s universities by 50 per cent. But it will also test just what the Ontario Premier’s push for foreign students really means, and what its legacy will be.
Laurentian’s success goes to show that, with the right effort, even relatively remote campuses can attract international talent. But what remains to be seen is how many newcomers will stick around after graduation.
Mr. McGuinty has spoken endlessly about the need for Ontario to move from manufacturing to a knowledge economy. That’s one thing in Toronto, or Ottawa, or Kitchener-Waterloo, which don’t lack for human capital. But it’s quite another for Ontario’s version of the Rust Belt – smaller cities with roots firmly in manual labour.
There could hardly be a better test case than Sudbury, a town that has worked harder than most to reinvent itself, but still struggles to gain respect. Either it will provide the model for getting newcomers to live off the beaten track, or prove it can’t be done.
More @ The Globe and Mail
