Niagara Falls, November 23, 2015: The CBIE is pleased to announce that it has become a Country Partner in Generation Study Abroad, a major initiative of the Institute of International Education, one of CBIE’s sister associations in the United States.
This exciting five year project aims to double the number of American students studying abroad by the end of the decade. This dovetails with CBIE’s own objective of greatly increasing the number of Canadian students studying abroad. Far too few Canadian students are participating in study abroad programs each year – a mere 3% at universities and 1% at colleges. This translates into a generation that has not studied abroad and has not gained the essential skills needed to navigate an increasingly interconnected world.
CBIE is a strong promoter of international mobility for students and believes that when Canadians go abroad, their experiences can support intercultural understanding and partnership, knowledge generation and capacity-building. At the same time, study abroad participants broaden their worldview and grow personally and professionally.
“While there are quite a few students doing full degree programs in both directions, the number of study abroad exchanges between Canada and the United States is relatively small. Therefore we join as a Country Partner in Generation Study Abroad with a particular interest in expanding study abroad experiences between Canadian and American students” said Karen McBride, President and CEO of CBIE who co-signed the agreement with Dr. Allan Goodman, President and CEO of the Institute of International Education during CBIE’s 49th annual conference in Niagara Falls.
In becoming a Country Partner in Generation Study Abroad CBIE commits to working closely with IIE to achieve its mutual objective of mobilizing “Generation Study Abroad”. This commitment will manifest itself in a number of activities including encouraging higher education institutions in Canada to take specific actions to attract U.S. students and to promote Canadians to study in the U.S.; promoting Canadian study abroad opportunities to U.S students, and vice versa on CBIE’s student website and convening workshops, discussion groups and panels at our annual conferences to support institutions to develop strategies to attract and host more U.S students.
CBIE is Canada’s national organization dedicated to making Canada a global leader in international education. CBIE’s pan-Canadian membership comprises 150 colleges, institutes, universities, school boards and language schools which enrol over 1.2 million students from coast to coast.
For information, contact:
Jacquelyn Hoult
Director, Communications
t: 613-237-4820 ext. 254 | jhoult@cbie.ca
@CBIE_BCEI
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