Thank you.
The Governor General is also CBIE's patron and just last week helped us launch our blog, “Without Borders”. At present, only 3% of Canadian university students and 1.1% of college students participate in exchange programs. Compare this to Germany, where 33% do. Just this month, the Australian government announced $38.5 million for 10,000 students to study abroad. In 2011, Brazil announced 100,000 scholarships for study abroad.
CBIE urges the committee to consider at minimum a ramp-up from the current investment of $5 million per annum by the federal government to $25 million within the next three years, with a significant amount of this total dedicated toward enhancing our current scholarship offer and to build momentum for providing international experience for Canadian students. We also urge that the government consider a council for international education and research and fund that as well.
In short, CBIE urges this committee to take forward our message and support the recommendations that will permit us to realize this potential as a global leader in international education.
I thank the committee for its time today.