From neoliberal to supra-neoliberal: Canadian education industry formation

Abstract

In 2014, Canada released its first national International Education Strategy, and in 2019 – its second. This paper argues that emergence of a national document strategizing Canada’s education selling and inevitably regulating international student mobility, with strictly provincial regulation of the sector, would not be possible without bottom-up proactive initiatives originating in the institutional domain. Treating policy as a process involving multiple domains, I critically examine publicly available pre-budget submissions, briefs, and other documents, produced by the invested beneficiaries of the first Strategy, higher education institutions. Universities, united under their networking organization Universities Canada (UC) had become active advocates for a national education strategy that would bring international education into the federal domain, vertically transcending the provincial/territorial level. UCs’ stakeholder advocacy helped to elevate the largely ungoverned international education from individual university neoliberal modes to a national priority, leading to a state of education governance in Canada that can be characterized as a ‘supra-neoliberal’ education industry.

Keywords:

• Internationalization of education
• education policy
• student mobility
• migration policy
• supra-neoliberalism
• Universities Canada

Notes

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude Dr. Belinda Dodson, who has provided me with invaluable advice, comments, and support during writing of this paper. I am also thankful to the anonymous reviewers for the feedback on the earlier draft of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The number includes universities, university colleges, and theological schools that are Designated Learning Institutions (DLI) for the international student program, as of December 4, 2017 (CICIC, n.d.).

2 It was established in 2006 and managed in collaboration between CMEC and the marketing unit of then DFAIT (now GAC) to promote educational opportunities in Canada globally.

3 The term’s genesis stems from a 2002 speech of New Zealand’s then Prime Minister Helen Clark, in which she stated that neoliberalism in the country was over (Larner et al., 2007, p. 228).

4 And other organizations, but these are outside of the scope of this paper.

5 There are only three CBIE members that do not belong to any other of the networks.

6 UC (738814-423) OCL registration at: https://lobbycanada.gc.ca/.

7 Any such partnerships are currently on revocation as foreign relations between Canada and Saudi Arabia went into turmoil in summer 2018.

8 World University Service of Canada.

9 This includes Established Program Financing transfers to provinces.

10 Bill C-31 was succeeded by Bill C-11 of the same title, and UC submitted it again on March 2, 2001.

11 Advisory Panel on Canada’s International Education Strategy (2012) had online-surveyed education representatives (143 submissions) in Canada, and in addition held a series of discussion round tables.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alexandra M. Bozheva

Alexandra M. Bozheva is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Network for Economic and Social Trends (NEST), at the University of Western Ontario. A graduate of Geography and Migration and Ethnic Relations programs (UWO), her research interests encompass international student migration, migration policy, geography of migration, and immigrant retention rates.