Reimagining Internationalization
in a COVID-19 World

Over the past several years, internationalization leaders have been calling for a rethink to international education, particularly international mobility. With a global pandemic restricting travel, including for academic purposes, is this the end of education abroad as we know it? Or is this a moment of opportunity?

Join this session which will feature three Canadian institutions that have innovatively re-imagined their education abroad programming in light of COVID-19.

*This session will feature an introduction by Dr. Hans de Wit, internationalization expert, discussing why creative solutions to education abroad are needed now more than ever.

Presenter names:

Danielle Harder, Professor of Journalism – Mass Media, School of Media, Art & Design, Durham College

Janine Knight-Grofe, Manager, International Education, Durham College & Co-Chair, CBIE’s Education Abroad Professional Learning Community (PLC)

Colleen Packer, Director, International Learning Programs, University of Calgary & Co-Chair, CBIE’s Education Abroad Professional Learning Community (PLC)

Rebecca Trautwein, Manager, Global Learning and Engagement, Humber College

Dayna Vey (She/Her), International Programs Coordinator, Memorial University of Newfoundland

As the deadly Coronavirus continued its spread across the world, Malaysia had taken its own control measures in curbing the spread of the global pandemic. National borders were shut for foreigners flying inbound, various phases of movement control orders were introduced which limits mobility of individuals. Malaysians universities has had a substantial number of international students who are either full time students or short term exchange students and their lives were also impacted with the pandemic. Communication was key in ensuring that messages were being shared to not only local but also international students. This paper shares the experience of Malaysian universities dealing with these new changes.

The Ministry of Higher Education and individual universities has played a key role in ensuring that communication was made in a structured manner and student’s needs were addressed. In the beginning, the preliminary tasks include assisting students who may need to return to their home countries, liaising with embassies and partner universities, contacting airlines for confirmation of flights and etc. However, as we now enter the realm of the new normal, universities are now redefining and re-strategizing their long-term internationalization plans.

Presenter:

Dr. Abdul Latiff Ahmad
Director of UKM Global
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

With 65 percent of international students coming from India in 2017, Fanshawe College was looking to diversify their international population. “We understand that India will remain a major international market, but with physical presence established in India for the last 9 years, the focus has shifted to attracting students from under-represented markets.” Saurabh Malhotra, Manager – International Recruitment and Market Development

THE SOLUTION
Within the past several years Fanshawe College has adopted the core belief of gaining efficiency through digital tools. “Everyone is being asked to produce more, while spending less. If you’re able to do this without using digital tools, that’s a miracle. Efficiency, diversity and impact were our key goals in leveraging digital tools.”
To help develop their digital effort, Fanshawe partnered with IDP Connect in June of 2017 to promote their institution and academic programs across the IDP global platform with the end goal of diversifying their international student population and increasing the number of students from underrepresented countries. This session will look at Fanshawe College’s digital transformation beginning in 2017 as a Case Study for the effective implementation of tech and data-driven recruitment to order to drive diversity, use data to make informed decisions, and measure return on investments.

Presenter:

Saurabh Malhotra
Manager – International Recruitment and Market Development
Fanshawe College

Christine Wach
Director of Client Partnerships, Canada
IDP Connect

“The hardest part is coming back”. This is true in the best of times but has gained a new dimension for re-entry after the unprecedented global recall in March 2020, based on COVID-19. Students abroad were called back to Canada from a variety of mobility programs around the globe. For most of them mid-program and within a short time.

Re-entry programs are support structures that address both the positive and negative changes for students returning from education abroad programs. They foster intercultural learning and positive impacts on the student and provide strategies for learning from a transformational experience, and coping with challenges of reintegration.

While re-entry programs differ from university to university, we were all faced with difficulties to design and conduct these programs after the COVID-19 recall of students abroad. This webinar will introduce an example of a re-entry program and use it to outline new problems and challenges. We will look at issues that arose for students, for student support, and for re-entry formats. This session will provide space for all participants to exchange concerns, ideas, or solutions.

Presenter:

Nina C. Delling
Education Abroad Advisor
MacEwan International

In this session we will explore technologies and media that can be connected in a seamless way to enable online teaching and learning: not only to ensure that students will reach their learning outcomes and to provide for rich and dynamic inclusive learning experiences, but also to bring together communities of practice.
Challenges, emerging trends and the transformation of teaching and learning in higher education will be considered against an educator digital competence framework.

Presenter:

Christa Morrison
Digital Pedagogy Specialist
McMaster University

Managing student recruitment agents – from onboarding to creating sustainable recruitment partnerships

Recruitment agents play a vital role in diversifying and growing international student numbers. Gain insight into marketing strategies while recognizing the agent’s role. This session will address the factors of selection, management, and motivation as well as how to work with your agent partners during times of crisis.

Intended for professionals who are considering using or who have recently started working with agents.

Learning objectives:
– Distinguish the agent’s role in the student recruitment process and how to work with them effectively for your school
– Analyze how to screen and select agents to ensure they meet the requisite professional standards
– Gain insights into creating codes of conduct for agent appointment and training and the best practices for agent engagement
– Determine basic agent contract requirements, annual review processes, involving your appointed agents in your marketing communications and motivational techniques including financial incentive schemes

Presenter:

Robin Garcha
Director of Business Development, Canada
ICEF GmbH

What do we mean when we talk about allyship? In this talk, we will explore concepts of power and privilege and how they intersect with allyship, the lifelong process of building relationships based on trust, consistency, and accountability with marginalized individuals and/or groups of people. How will you show up in these uncertain times?

Presenter:

Allison Hector-Alexander
Director, Office of Student Diversity, Inclusion and Transitions
Durham College

The Sentinel Program

From 1990 to 2011 the suicide rate for teenagers (15 to 19) in Quebec, was decreased from 21 to 9 / 100,000. The presentation will give a brief look at how that was brought about and the difference a group of gatekeepers in a college or university can make for suicide prevention.”
Michael Sheehan is a retired judge and for over twenty years, a spokesperson for suicide prevention. He is presently co-chair of a collective of 40 provincewide unions, healthcare workers, professionals and support groups seeking a global and comprehensive suicide prevention strategy in Quebec.

Presenter
Judge Michael Sheehan

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on higher education around the world. From travel restrictions and institution closures causing uncertainty for prospective international students, to educational institutions ultimately seeing a decline in enrollment both short and long term, the question on everyone’s mind is: how is the education sector going to recover?

Now more than ever, educational institutions will need to leverage technology and data to make educated decisions on how to enhance brand awareness within source markets, drive qualified applications, support students along their educational journey, and ultimately increase enrollments.

In this session, ApplyBoard will do a deep dive into its data, providing attendees with market trends, actionable insights, and strategies for honing technology and data to help the education sector recover.

Presenters

Meti Basiri Co-Founder and CMO ApplyBoard

Hannah Dang Associate Director, Partner Relations ApplyBoard

Alicia Bedard Director, Marketing ApplyBoard