Tips on Recruiting International Students

It’s no secret that a major priority of Canadian universities is to recruit substantial numbers of international students, who in turn pay very high tuition fees once they arrive in Canada. Recent evidence suggests that insofar as Canadian universities want to continue doing so, they should work with senior levels of government to reduce the cost of both housing and public transit for students.

A recent article in The Pie News looks at the recent decrease in international-student recruitment at Australian universities. An industry analyst quoted in the article blames the decrease in large part on the “high costs of student accommodation and public transport in major Australian cities.”

I think there are lessons here for Canada.

One way to reduce the cost of student housing in Canadian cities would be to increase the amount of student housing that his owned and operated by non-profit entities, rather than private entities.  I’ve blogged before about the extent to which this keeps rent levels for tenants down over the long term.  And one way to keep the cost of public transportation down for students would be to increase the availability of universal student transit passes, which I plan to blog about later this month.