Canadian Bureau for International Education

The Ontario regional meeting will be held at Nipissing University and Canadore College in North Bay, from May 6-8, 2009. For more information contact jenb@nipissingu.ca. prior to Christmas

CBIE wrote to Minister Jim Flaherty in the run-up to the budget to emphasize the importance of providing support to international students and scholarships, especially increasing resources to processing of study permit renewals which has stretched to unacceptable lengths of time – prior to Christmas, as high as 93 days.

Jim Fox, CBIE’s president, has announced his retirement date of June 30 of this year. A search is underway for a new president, as you will see from ads in La Presse and The Globe and Mail. A search committee of the board of directors has engaged the services of Ray and Berndtson to promote the position. Members who would like to propose candidates are invited to communicate directly with Michael Naufal, Éric Lathrop or Alexandra Kaneb at Ray and Berndtson at 613-742-3213 or by email at a.kaneb@rayberndtson.ca.

Canada Signs Youth Mobility Agreement with Spain

Under this new agreement, students will be able to study and travel in the partner country for a period of up to one year. The agreement with Spain follows that of Chile, which was signed last year. Canada has Youth Mobility Agreements with a total of 19 countries and will soon be adding another 8 countries to the list. For more information on Youth Mobility Agreements Canada has with the world, visit DFAIT’s website.

Public Policy Knowledge Network in the South Caucasus

CBIE’s Public Policy Knowledge Network (PPKN) project in the South Caucasus countries of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia concluded at the end of February 2009. The $6.4M CIDA-funded PPKN project, which was launched in July 2003, was designed and implemented by CBIE to build capacity within the government of Georgia and at schools of public administration in all three South Caucasus countries to meet global standards and best practices in public administration. Over the course of more than five years, the PPKN project contributed to the improvement of public policy capacity within the government of Georgia through training over 120 government officials in global standards of gender-sensitive policy analysis and development, and enriched public administration education through curriculum development for 13 graduate-level courses at public administration academies in all three South Caucasus countries. More details…

Membership Survey

Last fall CBIE conducted an online membership satisfaction survey. When asked in what way their institution benefitted from membership, most responses referred to professional development, networking, advocacy, and member support, particularly as it relates to immigration, project participation, listservs and the annual conference. More details…

Winner of Membership Survey Prize

And the winner is…We are delighted to announce that Violet Kalesnikoff, Dean of International Development, Selkirk College in Trail, BC, has won the complimentary 2009 CBIE conference registration. Remember, it pays to get involved. CBIE thanks everyone who completed the survey. Your input is valuable and will help the secretariat to provide better and more focused services to our membership.

CBIE Conference 2009 – Call for Session Proposals

The deadline to submit a session proposal for CBIE’s 43^rd annual conference is Thursday, April 9, 2009. The theme of the conference is “Internationalization Effectiveness: Strategies for Success” and this year’s feature event is the Canada-China Education Partnership Forum. The conference will be held in Toronto, Ontario, at the Westin Harbour Castle, from November 8 to 11. Pencil it in your calendar! For more information, visit the conference website.

Note: Conference registration will open in mid-June – be sure to register early, as we are offering discounted fees until August 24. After that, you can still obtain a lower rate than at on-site registration, but keep in mind the importance of savings these days! We hope that you will take advantage of this additional discount.

Conference 2008 Evaluation

The 2008 conference was held in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. A total of 350 delegates registered (including exhibitors, sponsors, speakers, day participants, registrants for PD workshops and participants in the Canada-Caribbean and Central America Education Partnership Forum). Survey respondents gave the conference program a “thumbs-up” in the evaluation, with an honorable mention going to the keynote presentation by Dr. Gwynne Dyer, who received a 95% satisfaction rate. Other sessions that were well received include “Europe’s Bologna Process” by Fiona Hunter and Mike Condra’s and Wayne Myles’ session on International Students’ Mental Health.

What delegates liked the most about the conference was visiting St. John’s, networking at the conference and at social events (such as the Rally in the Alley) and the opportunities to learn that were provided by the conference program.

AUCC’s New President

AUCC’s new president is Paul Davidson, who will move to AUCC from his current position as executive director of WUSC in May. For details, see AUCC’s website at: www.aucc.ca.

DFAIT Scholarship Competition

The 2008-09 competition for the Graduate Students Exchange Program and the College and Undergraduate Students Exchange Program is underway, with a deadline of May 22, 2009. Canadian institutions – professors and mobility directors/coordinators – may apply to host international students from partner institutions in a number of countries. Link http://scholarships.gc.ca/noncanadians-en.html

Elizabeth Paterson International Student of the Year Award

CBIE is now accepting online submissions for the Fifth Annual Elizabeth Paterson Student of the Year Award until March 31, 2009. A national selection committee will review nominations and designate Canada’s "International Student of the Year." Winners will be notified in May 2009 and the results will be announced on our web site. More details…

APAIE: Asia Pacific Association for International Education

CBIE will be co-hosting a networking roundtable on the margins of the APAIE conference in Beijing, April 15-17. We look forward to promoting the Canada-China educational relationship with a session that will lead into further discussions at our conference Forum on November 8. For information, contact Jennifer Humphries, JHumphries@cbie.ca.

Welcome to New Members:

· Ontario College of Art and Design

· Ontario Principals’ Council

Welcome to New Corporate Sponsors:

· Navitas Canada

· Instituto Universitario Oxford CEOX, Mexico

Other Meetings

The Inter-American Organization for Higher Education (IOHE), the Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration (CONAHEC) and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) are organizing a joint international conference in Guadalajara, Mexico from April 22-24. The conference theme is “Inter-American Academic Collaboration: Building our Future Together”. More details…

NAFSA 2009 International Conference and Expo will be held in Los Angeles, California from May 24-29. The theme for this year conference is “Fostering Global Engagement Through International Education.” More details…