President Donald Trump waves as he boards Air Force One, Saturday, July 22, 2017, in Andrews Air Force Base, Md.
Image Credit: (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
September 19, 2017 - 4:40 PM
OKANAGAN - International student enrollment jumped by almost a third this year at Okanagan College but not for the reason many other schools have reported — the so-called Trump Bump.
“We don’t have a direct line to the Trump Bump. No one has been saying they are coming here because they can't get into the U.S.,” Okanagan College vice-president Charlotte Kushner said.
That success runs counter to reports from universities and colleges around the world of surging international enrolments tied anecdotally, at least, to the controversial attempts by U.S. President Donald Trump to introduce travel bans on people from certain countries.
Instead Kushner gives credit to the college’s overseas marketing, intensified in the last few years, for bringing 878 international students to the college this September, an increase of 29 per cent over last fall.
“We’ve been working hard in certain countries, India, China,” Kushner said. "We’ve always had strong Jamaican and Japanese numbers and we’ve been working some partnerships in emerging markets like Vietnam and Mexico.”
Kushner said enrollment from the U.S. has actually dropped while it continues to increase from other countries, especially from Asia.
“Our biggest market is India,” she added. “But we have students from Saudi Arabia, Argentina, and Colombia. We have students from Ecuador, Finland, Ireland and Mongolia.”
Kushner said the soaring international numbers at her school are more likely tied to efforts begun a decade ago by universities and colleges across Canada to tap into the international education market and help boost their bottom lines.
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