bout de papier, Vol. 32, No. 1 (2022), pp. 7–11
Can you imagine that on the same day in different locations, former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, former Minister of International Trade Sergio Marchi and former Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy each were scheduled to give addresses on the importance of international education to Canada on March 5, 1997?
IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND HOW and why this took place, we need to go back to January 31, 1994, when Roy McLaren, the then Minister for International Trade (MINT), responded to a formal marketing study by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) which stressed the significant political and economic benefits generated by international students in Canada. The Minister noted that Canada was losing ground to Australia, Great Britain and the United States, all of which were making concerted efforts to attract well-qualified students from Asian countries. Mr. McLaren further announced that DFAIT would sponsor a conference on Canada and the Asia and Pacific Region in Vancouver in March 1994 focussing on international education.
Based on the results of the marketing study as well as positive feedback from the Vancouver conference, MINT announced on November I of that same year, that DFAIT, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) in partnership with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada (APFC), planned to establish a network of nine Canadian Information Centres over the next five years in the Asia Pacific region. The Information Centres were to be based on principles developed by the Canadian Embassy in Seoul.
CIDA was to assume responsibility for Information Centres in those jurisdictions where it had a major operational presence. DFAIT would be financially responsible for the non-CIDA Information Centres and while CIC did not contribute financially to the network, that Department was most supportive of the establishment of the Information Centres and was equipped to determine which students met the criteria to study in Canada. The APFC, headed by Dr. Bill Saywell, who had served in the Canadian Embassy in Beijing, was to have overall managerial responsibilities for the establishment and operation of the Centres.
In 1995, the Canadian Information Centre Network was renamed the Canadian Education Centre Network (CECN) and between 1995 and 2000, the CECN established nine Canadian Education Centres (CECs) in the Asia Pacific region, including China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. Thailand and Vietnam joined some time later. The CECN was eventually spun off as a private non-profit organization and Rodney Briggs, a political officer with DFAIT who had managed the Canadian Education Centre in Seoul, became the first president in 1997.
World political and economic factors affect interest in studying in Canada
There is some context for DFAIT’s interest in establishing the CEC network in the late 1980s and 90s. There were unsettling economic conditions in various parts of the world. The Tokyo stock exchange crashed in 1989. The Thai currency, the Baht, took a massive hit in 1997. The Russian ruble underwent a major devaluation in late 1998. The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 also contributed to a sense of unease in Europe and beyond. On the other hand, Canada was in fairly good economic shape at that time, as was the United States. One writer described the economy in North America as having “a renaissance”.
While CEC programs were principally directed towards student clientele, the education centre activities complemented political and economic programs in a number of missions abroad. Canadian Prime Ministers, Ministers of International Trade, Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Ministers of Citizenship and Immigration all led successful missions to Asia Pacific posts. For example, Lucienne Robillard, then Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, launched the Canadian Education Centre in Hong Kong in 1998. Prime Minister Chrétien announced the opening of the CEC in Jakarta, which was officially carried out by Raymond Chan, the Secretary of State for the Asia and Pacific Region.
In 1991, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce office in Taiwan, later giving way to the present Canadian Trade Office in Taipei, opened an educational office which then became part of the Canadian Education Centre Network. Before the Taipei Canadian Education Centre office was opened, more Taiwanese students enrolled in the public Minnesota State University in Mankato than enrolled in all of Canada. That all changed with the establishment of the CEC in Taipei.
The CECN attracted a host of education providers in Canada
From 1995 through to 2000, the CECN had enjoyed well-deserved support from Canada’s international education community and, in some senses, was driven by it. According to the CECN website, all provinces had enlisted in the CECN with 245 universities, community colleges, secondary schools, language schools and summer camps across Canada eventually represented. I found it amazing to feel the support and enthusiasm for the Education Marketing File (EMF) from the offices of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, Minister of International Trade Sergio Marchi and Minister of Foreign Affairs,Lloyd Axworthy, as well as basically all levels of staff colleagues in the Lester B. Pearson Building. The success of the CECN offices in Asia became widely known in Canadian posts abroad, including Washington D.C.
Enquiries by telephone, telex and email began to arrive in my DFAIT office, asking how individual posts could capitalize on the growing interest for studying in Canada. I recall receiving a telephone call from Ambassador Jeremy Kinsman in Moscow to discuss his interest in the Education Marketing File and mentioning a young officer, who he felt was well-suited to manage education marketing in Moscow. Our embassies in Oslo and The Hague also expressed similar interest in establishing an education marketing presence in their missions as did Ambassador Stuart McDowall in Abu Dhabi. Our Consul General in Munich, Jon Scott, also expressed a strong interest in developing a Canadian education marketing capacity to serve Southern Germany.
Developments in Athens
A most novel approach to promoting Canadian education abroad came from our mission in Athens. As the DFAIT publication Panorama wrote in June 1997, the Education Resource Centre (ERC) in Athens featured a new model for promoting post-secondary Canadian education in Greece. In the words of then Ambassador Derek Fraser, CECs in Asia were used as a springboard for the Athens model, which epitomized the reality of a small mission’s resources and capacity. To make ends meet for this operation, Ambassador Fraser assumed the chores of the mission gardener himself!
Bob Peck, then Counsellor at our Mission in Athens stated: “The success of the Athens model was based largely on the work of Kathy Angelopoulou, a Greek-Canadian and University of Toronto graduate with impressive credentials in the sector. Responsible for education marketing and academic relations at the E from 1998 to 2008 as a member of the Locally- Engaged Staff, Kathy built an impressive network of partnerships in Canada and Greece which left an important legacy.”
While her position was a victim of the massive budget cuts arising from the Great Recession of 2008, Kathy continues to promote Canadian academic options as Deputy Coordinator of the International Baccalaureate Programme at the prestigious Costeas- Geitonas School (CGS) in Athens.
Formal Canadian education marketing interest in Latin America emerges
As indicated, CECN and post programs to facilitate education marketing were growing at a phenomenal pace throughout Asia, with expressions of interest also coming from Canadian missions in Europe and the Middle East. It was in Latin and South America, however, where Canadian interests coalesced. Rodney Briggs offered a visionary comment on behalf of the CECN, saying that “with the success of marketing Canadian education in Asia Pacific, it was clear that we should offer the same opportunity for students globally. Our major effort at the time was to open up the Latin American market.”
Not so fast, however: a marketing study was needed for Latin America!
Bearing in mind how critical the marketing study was for Asian markets in the early 1990s, the Latin American Trade Division and a small Political and Economic DFAIT team designed a marketing study for Latin America. Fred Spoke, the trade representative on the team in Ottawa, knew exactly where those questionnaires should be sent in Latin America, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia. In addition to addressing the post-secondary education catchment area, Fred wisely flagged the private school potential for Canada. Twenty-four years later, I well remember how thoughtful and positive the responses were to those surveys.
Canadian attendance at Latin American fairs and conferences
Concurrent with the marketing study, Canadian academics and representatives of various Canadian education institutions attended a growing number of education fairs in South America. Brazil declared 1996 to be “The Year of Education”. In 1997, a major conference took place in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. In a new and welcome development, Canadian Embassy staff in Brasilia personally provided assistance to Canadian education representatives at the Rio conference with helpful information about legal and other requirements for Brazilian student applicants.
With such positive results from the Latin American marketing study, the positive experiences of Canadian academic participants at education fairs in Brazil and encouraging signs of interest from our Embassy in Mexico, the timing seemed right for a Team Canada visit to Latin America, similar to the earlier well-received visits to China and India as well as other Asian countries.
The 1998 Team Canada heads to South and Latin America: a Canadian event which brought huge results
a Canadian event which brought huge results According to David Kilgour, then Secretary of State (Latin America and Africa), who was on the Latin America Visit Team, it was the largest Team Canada visit ever designed to promote Canadian goods and services (including educational services) as well as to foster the establishment of long-term institutional links. Participants included 10 premiers as well as territorial representatives, nearly 500 business representatives, 64 women entrepreneurs, 34 young entrepreneurs and four Indigenous business leaders. The press corps was also well-represented, including Robert Fife from The Globe and Mail.
In terms of the education dimension of the Team Canada visit, Sergio Marchi, Minister for International Trade, oversaw the opening of four Canadian Education Centres (CECs) in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. The first CEC in Mexico City was scheduled to be opened by Prime Minister Chrétien but was unfortunately delayed. A most memorable reception took place nonetheless, with the principals enthusiastic about doing business in Mexico and beyond in South America. As companion pieces, four Cultural Memoranda of Understanding were prepared for signature, and designed to be complementary to the business deals negotiated. While there was no public mention of their signing, at least one premier, Ralph Klein of Alberta, while in Santiago, Chile, publicly praised them as a “good idea”.
In the middle of a glittering wind-up Team Canada reception in Buenos Aires, I received a telephone call from Meera Louis of the Wall Street Journal wanting to learn more about Canada’s plans to establish “25 education information centres” in Canadian diplomatic and consular offices by the year 2000. She had heard that Canada had a “new spin on education marketing”, compared to what was happening in her country. She mentioned that US foreign student numbers had been flat in recent years, likely due, she said, to high tuition fees and rising crime rates. She had been well briefed by the DFAIT Public Affairs Office in Ottawa.
With respect to a look back to Team Canada’s visit to Latin America, I think Minister Marchi said it well, “It was a pleasure to have educational institutions as part of Team Canada. Promoting our education excellence internationally [was] important for attracting foreign students, as [was] our education’s affordability by contrast to other nations. Moreover, our way of life was and is safe and welcoming to newcomers.”
In terms of the Education Marketing File, a phenomenal amount of development had transpired between 1995— 2000, leading some to refer to that period as the “Golden Years of Education Marketing in Canada”. While federal/ provincial issues arose at times, efforts to work with each other were largely successful.
Administrative changes in the works
four recently opened centres in Mexico and Latin America as well as individual initiatives at the post level such as Athens and Abu Dhabi, Minister Marchi rightly recognized the need to make critical administrative changes.
One such change was the establishment of a 21 member Education Marketing Advisory Board (EMAB) to deal with specific and broad policy issues. The Advisory Board brought together leading representatives from the Association of Universities and Community Colleges (AUCC), the Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC), individual universities, colleges, and provincial representatives.
Sheldon Levy, then President of Sheridan College, assumed the Chair of the Board position. The first meeting of the Oversight Committee, which was an elegant occasion, was held in the Lester B. Pearson Building enhanced with music provided by a University of Ottawa string quartet.
In terms of organization structure, Minister Marchi also established a formal Education Marketing Unit (ACET) in DFAIT, which included Darren Smith, a recent Queen’s University graduate who had just completed a work placement at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, and Dr. Gilles Séguin, who had received his doctorate from Penn State University.
Harbingers of developments to take place
While administrative changes were taking place at a rapid pace, DFAIT had also been technologically active in developing an initial education marketing CD-ROM in cooperation with Rodney Briggs and his Canadian Education Centre Network colleagues. More than 4,500 copies of the CD-ROM, “Study in Canada,” were distributed to all our missions worldwide.
Minister Marchi, at a much heralded Education Industry Summit in Toronto in October 1998, launched the second edition of the CD-ROM, which was multilingual and available in French, English, Spanish, Arabic and Portuguese! This CD-ROM signalled that a new day had arrived for Canadian education marketing internationally.
Developments in the first years of the 21st century with respect to the Education Marketing File (EMF) were much more complicated than in the years leading up to the year 2000.
The introduction and growing popularity of the CD- ROM as well as the establishment of the DFAIT website in multiple languages, were, in a sense, counter to the role of the CECN offices internationally. Many observers, however, believe that the “coup de grâce” for the CECN, as with other government funded entities, came as a result of the Great Recession of 2008. The massive cutbacks in federal government funding eventually resulted in the closure of the entire CECN network on June 30, 2009.
Attempts by various Canadian education entities to keep the CECN alive were simply unsuccessful, the reasons for which require explanation, but go beyond the purview of this narrative.
The story of the relationship between DFAIT/GAC and the Canadian educational community, however, did not end with the closing of the CECN. In a sense, the relationship between DFAIT/GAC and the Canadian Education Community gained traction, leading up to the point where the international trade side of Global Affairs Canada had assumed responsibility for the entire Education Marketing File. The unfolding of that development is a story in and of itself and whoever writes it will complete an important element in the Canadian Education Marketing saga!
Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 32, No. 1 (2022), pp. 7–11. Read the rest of this issue →
