Thank you.
Good afternoon, Chair and members of the committee. I am pleased to appear in front of you again on behalf of the University of Toronto to speak about the important role of talent and innovation in Canada's economy.
Today I would like to highlight two initiatives established by the Government of Canada by which we might address these issues: the science and technology strategy and the international education strategy.
Let me begin with Canada's science and technology strategy. The backbone of tomorrow's economy will be the quality of our science and technology, our innovation, and our entrepreneurship.
Business innovation relies on basic research to create innovative products and services. Stable funding for basic research is a prerequisite to knowledge creation. In addition to the research itself, students are arguably the best carriers of knowledge from our labs to industry.
For example, the University of Toronto recently established the Master of Science and Applied Computing, a unique program aimed at innovators and entrepreneurs that involves an eight-month internship. Remarkably, 100% of the first graduating cohort were offered full-time jobs by their internship employers.
We believe the government would generate immense value by further investing in these types of internship industry opportunities. For example, Mitacs, with its accelerate, elevate, and enterprise programs, and NSERC have some very successful industrial fellowship programs, which should be expanded.
Innovation infrastructure is another important element of Canada's science and technology strategy. Major science and technology buildings, particularly at Canada's research-intensive universities, require continued investment to expand and modernize facilities in order to remain internationally competitive. Federal support for these large-scale capital projects is required to advance the science and technology strategy by complementing existing support provided by the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
Let me now turn to the need for Canada to sharpen its international focus. International trade is a top priority for our country. Canada, as we know, is a trading nation. Our economy depends on the flow of goods and services, and increasingly, it also depends on the flow of people and ideas.
The University of Toronto is helping to address the need for increased internationalization in our economy. We have 10,000 international students from more than 160 countries. In fact, our engineering faculty alone has 26% of its incoming undergraduates and 22% of graduate students as international students. This faculty is addressing some of the brightest young people from abroad, as reflected by the first-year entering average, which is 91.3%.
Our research enterprise is similarly internationalized; 43% of all research at the University of Toronto published by our professors is co-authored with international collaboration.
What is the return on investment for international students coming to study in Canada? International students often stay after completing their post-secondary degrees to become some of our most highly skilled immigrants.
Recently I participated in an event in Toronto at which Minister Kenney celebrated a young man named Gaurav Gore, a University of Toronto MBA student who became the 20,000th permanent resident accepted through the Canadian experience class program. This valuable program offers a path for Canadian residency for temporary foreign workers and international students graduating in Canada.
At U of T, more than 25% of Ph.D. students studying on a visa become permanent residents.