Pathway operators have been focused on getting contracts with universities in Canada for several years but there has been little real momentum. All the more interesting to catch rumours of Navitas nearing a breakthrough with Ryerson University. It’s worth having a look at whether there’s any strength to them.
Exhibit one would be the university’s Senate Meeting Agenda of 1 October 2019. Pages 78 to 83 have a summary of meetings ‘from the President’s Calendar’ and there, hiding in plain sight on page 82, is the entry:
Jul 29, 2019: Over dinner, I met with Rod Jones, group CEO for Navitas worldwide; Scott Jones, nonexecutive chair of the board for Navitas worldwide; and Brian Stevenson, president and CEO, university partnerships, Navitas North America. We discussed the potential for Ryerson to bring in international students through the pathways to university education that Navitas offers.
The information had previously been shared at the Board of Governors meeting on September 20, 2019. So we know that Ryerson’s President Mohamed Lachemi has been meeting with senior people from Navitas although that might not be considered unusual. But there’s a little bit more to report.
Recent social media shows President Lachemi escaping the Canadian winter in the past couple of weeks and ‘expanding Ryerson’s relationships with leading universities’ in Australia. This might be unexceptional but the twittersphere also suggests visits to Griffith College and Deakin College – two Navitas centers – arranged by Navitas. And it sounds like there have been more meetings with senior Navitas folk.
There’s no way of confirming the market gossip and I am always happy to clarify the situation if an authoritative source gets in touch. Ryerson has certainly been in conversation with at least one external operator in the past but given the rise of Canada as an international student recruitment magnet it’s questionable what benefits such a relationship brings. Some commentators might argue they could organize themselves to take advantage of the momentum behind enrollments.
Once clue might be that Ryerson looks to have been left lagging despite the surge in interest for the country with the world’s longest bi-national land border. There are thirty Canadian universities listed in the THE 2020 World Ranking top 1000 and the percentage of international students at Ryerson is the lowest of all. At 4% it is well behind other, admittedly higher ranked, Toronto institutions like the University of Toronto (21%) and York University (24%).
Ryerson’s global ranking in the THE ranking 601-800 bracket places it behind the other Navitas partners in Canada. The University of Manitoba is ranked in the 351-400 bracket and has 17% international students and Simon Fraser University is in the 251-300 bracket with 30% international students. This might suggest that there is plenty of scope for Ryerson to grow with the right sort of support.
It would be the third public research university to partner with Navitas and would give the portfolio added depth. The only other pathway provider with representation in Canada is Study Group who have one public research university in Royal Roads and two sub-degree colleges in Stenberg and the Center for Arts and Technology.
With US enrollments still struggling and the maturity of the UK and Australian pathway markets it’s easy to see why there is interest in Canada. Interest remains strong amongst students and agents with little sign of applications slowing. But everyone with a history in international recruitment knows that past performance is no guarantee of future success.
The international student boom in Canada has come with some issues that are increasingly grabbing the headlines. There are allegations of students being ‘duped by unscrupulous agents’, scarcity of part-time work and up to 39% of study visa applications being rejected. It’s difficult to believe that interest will slump quickly or precipitously but it may be time for wise heads to consider what a sustainable rate of growth might look like.
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