A dramatic increase in the amount of international students enrolled at the college this fall is due to better service, more intake availability, and a boost in overseas outreach, according to Camosun International director Geoff Wilmshurst.
Over 800 international students now attend the college’s two campuses, up 35.7 percent from the previous year, and Wilmshurst points to changes made when he came into the position two years ago.
“When I came in to the position I looked at what was happening in the past; Camosun was actually one of the few postsecondary institutions in BC where the international student numbers were in decline, which is really unusual given the comprehensiveness of Camosun and its popular location,” he says.
Wilmshurst and his team have raised the number of international students, from countries such as China, India and Japan, to almost double what they were two years ago.
Wilmhurst cites faster response times to international application and queries, a huge increase in the number of overseas recruitment agents (from about 10 to nearly 100), and a change in the college’s intake policy as the main reasons for the spike. Previously, Camosun had stringent caps on the number of international students they could accept into a given program.
“When the message got out that Camosun was now available and that they could now get in, and they could even apply past May and still get in, that began to change the application numbers quite dramatically,” says Wilmhurst.
And while the college is celebrating its highest international student enrollment numbers ever (the 35.7 percent increase is on top of last year’s 27 percent jump), it appears that Wilmhurst and his recently expanded team of 20 employees might have been playing catch-up.
“No matter how you look at the numbers, they are remarkable. We are certainly the leader in Canada now in terms of international student growth, which is incredible to me,” he says. “And, sure, there is the piece about catching up, but I think we did a lot of the catching up last year, frankly. So this year really came as a surprise to me, I didn’t really expect that kind of growth. You often hear about 20-percent growth, but over 35-percent growth is unprecedented.”
Andrea Lemus, the new international director for the Camosun College Student Society, says the increase is exciting for the college as a whole.
“Increasing the number of international students at the college will add to our diversity and is an amazing opportunity to increase our knowledge of different cultures,” she says.
Although she’s pleased about the increasing number of international students, Lemus is concerned that the college may not have the resources to support the new students, pointing to the Lansdowne English Help Centre as one service currently at capacity.
Lemus plans on working with the college’s Peer Connections program to help international students with their transition to North America, as well as holding cultural events on campus.
In a recent press release, Camosun College president Kathryn Laurin said the large increase allowed the college to hire more staff in the international department at Interurban, renovate the Interurban international space, and increase services overall.
“We have been able to invest in enhanced student services to better serve our domestic and international student body, including the further development of study abroad options for Canadian students,” said Laurin in the statement.
Wilmhurst says international students are now looking to Camosun as a viable option for studying in North America, citing lower costs than the US and parts of Europe.
Yusui Jin, a first-year university transfer student from China, says Camosun was a great place for her to ease into postsecondary studies in North America. She also says the college was appealing to her for its small class sizes, among other reasons.
“Victoria is also a milder climate and it’s easier to learn English here than in Vancouver because there aren’t as many Chinese people here,” says Jin.
May Shibata, a Japanese student taking ESL courses at Camosun, also hopes to transfer to UVic in a couple of years and says Victoria was her preferred destination when she was looking for a place to study in North America.
“I have been to Victoria a couple of times on travel and I really like it here,” says Shibata, “and from Camosun I can transfer to UVic.”