Canadian universities, including the University of British Columbia, Dalhousie University and University of Toronto, signed 13 memoranda of understanding with Indian institutions during the Prime Minister’s visit to the country.ALANA PATERSON/The New York Times
Canada’s agreement to pursue a new talent and research strategy in India represents a shift in Ottawa’s approach to international education as the country looks to build partnerships that could extend its influence in other parts of the world.
Earlier this month Canada and India announced a joint talent and innovation strategy during Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to the subcontinent. The initiative includes 13 partnerships between Canadian and Indian universities, as well as a commitment to work toward a broader agreement within six months with input from industry, governments and postsecondary institutions.
The agreement came not long after a relationship-building visit to India by a delegation of 21 presidents from Canadian universities.
Gabriel Miller, president of Universities Canada and part of the delegation, said the agreement is significant because it places education and research at the centre of the relationship between the two countries. India is looking for partners that can help it get where it wants to go economically, he said, and Canadian universities have a lot to offer.
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He called it the start of a fundamental change.
“The rest of the world wants knowledge. They want to commercialize it, and they are laser focused on how they educate their populations to succeed in a global economy. Canada has enormous assets in those areas, but we have to be willing to use them as part of our economic and international agenda,” Mr. Miller said.
India and other countries have historically sent thousands of students to Canadian universities and colleges. But the goal of this month’s agreement, dubbed the The Canada-India Talent and Innovation Strategy, is to create deeper ties through partnerships, joint research and the exchange of students and faculty, Mr. Miller said.
David Hornsby, vice-provost academic and global learning at Carleton University, said the India engagement represents an important change in how the federal government views universities and the role they can play in foreign policy.
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“I do think Carney sees Canadian universities as offering a huge amount of possibility and potential in terms of building our middle-power toolkit,” Prof. Hornsby said.
“A critical thing that Canada has to think about as a middle power is how are we going to stabilize relationships, how do we want to incentivize other countries to work with us, when we don’t have the material capabilities that other countries might have.”
Universities tend to be institutions with staying power, Prof. Hornsby said, and they create relationships that endure.
Prof. Hornsby has worked to forge stronger links with universities in South Africa through the South Africa-Canada Universities Network. He said Canada has some work to do to catch-up to countries such as Australia and Britain, which have much more developed international education strategies.
He was recently in Australia, for example, and visited several institutions that already have branch campuses in countries such as India, Malaysia and China. Canada is behind on that kind of engagement and presence, Prof. Hornsby added.
Canadian universities, including the University of British Columbia, Dalhousie University and University of Toronto, signed 13 memoranda of understanding with Indian institutions during the Prime Minister’s visit to the country.
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Benoit-Antoine Bacon, president of UBC, was among the handful of university presidents who travelled to India in early February and then returned for the Prime Minister’s visit in early March.
“India is not the country it once was, and we need to honour that,” Dr. Bacon said. “There are incredible institutions here that we want to partner with, strategically, for research in key areas.”
He said that UBC is looking to build a more reciprocal relationship in India and mentioned fields such as AI and life sciences, where working in partnership could prove advantageous.
He said the major announcement from UBC in this case was that it plans to make permanent a South Asia hub in Mumbai that it launched 18 months ago.
It also announced a partnership with Atlas SkillTech University, a private institution based in Mumbai. The partnership will create what’s known as a two-plus-two degree program, whereby students start their studies with two years in India and then complete the final two years in Canada. In this case the program will see international students complete their studies at UBC’s Okanagan campus in Kelowna.
The first cohort will begin studies in the fall and will arrive in B.C. in 2028. Dr. Bacon called this a pilot project that could be expanded elsewhere.
“We’re hoping to develop a number of those two-plus-two partnerships,” he said.