On a mission

Education leaders are promoting post-secondary institutions, building global partnerships, and attracting more international students to Nova Scotia

The tartan scarves may have offered to a casual observer the first clue that this was a unified group. In fact, it was a group on a mission—a mission to Ottawa, to meet foreign service officers, ambassadors, high commissioners, and consular officials and to promote Nova Scotia as an education destination and a partner in international education and training projects.

The February mission itself involved partnership and collaboration, uniting EduNova (the provincial non-profit, co-operative, education-and-training association), Nova Scotia Business Inc. (www.novascotiabusiness.com), and the provincial Department of Education (www.ednet.ns.ca). When EduNova (edunova.ca) lists its membership—Nova Scotia's 11 universities, a 13-campus community college network, seven school boards, and a number of private education and training organizations and consulting firms—its significance becomes apparent.

"It was a winning situation for every one of us to get together and have a clear message that went out around the world about the quality that we represent," says Nova Scotia Agricultural College (www.nsac.ns.ca) president Philip Hicks, who chairs the Council of Nova Scotia University Presidents.

Nova Scotia has about 4,000 international students representing 140 countries, who contribute about $100 million a year to the provincial economy. "If those students didn't come to Nova Scotia, we would definitely notice," says EduNova president and CEO Ava Czapalay. "Our businesses would notice, and our universities would notice for sure."

The internationalization of campuses continues to be crucial for the education sector in Nova Scotia. "What is a university but a crucible for the exchange of ideas, challenges, contradictions, and arguments out of which comes knowledge and wisdom?" asks Hicks. "And if we all are from the same cultural heritage, we're not going to achieve that on our campuses."

Joan McArthur-Blair, the president and CEO of the Nova Scotia Community College (nscc.ca), agrees. "There are tremendous growth possibilities for the community college in international work," she says. "To support the economy and quality of life of Nova Scotia, we need to be part of internationalizing our province."

NSBI president and CEO Stephen Lund view the mission as an opportunity to highlight the importance of our education system and its link to the province's economic success. "We talk to companies every day about locating in Nova Scotia, and they're looking at places around the world," he says. "The reason we're so successful is because we've got what most places don't have: a really strong, solid, post-secondary education system."

In what Lund describes as a worldwide "war for talent," a highly educated workforce is at the top of NSBI's list of competitive advantages and a key attraction for companies such as Citco Fund Services. The world's No. 1 hedge fund administrator recently opened an operation in Halifax and is slated to employ up to 350 people. "The buzz these days in Bermuda and Europe is that Halifax is the next Dublin," says Lund. "Dublin's success was driven by its education system, and so we believe there are huge opportunities for us here."

The international connection continues to be strengthened through relationship building. Philip Smith, the High Commissioner for the Bahamas, says that even though Nova Scotia is not really an island, the atmosphere is very similar to home for the more than 200 international students from the Bahamas who come to study here. "Not only do Bahamians feel very much at home, but all of the people from the Caribbean who have come to Nova Scotia have found that it's among the best places to study. It's foreign, it's different, but it's very much like home."

Nearly 90 Nova Scotians participated in the program, which included an afternoon information session for foreign service officers and an evening reception at which embassies from around the world were represented. "It was great exposure and a great audience," says Education Minister Karen Casey. "We spoke to the audience, and the audience heard. It was a great success."

Back in Nova Scotia, Czapalay spoke on the phone with the High Commissioner of India, who thanked her for hosting the reception and conveyed an eagerness to collaborate. "It was definitely mission accomplished," she says.

— Marie Weeren

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