Our job, of course, is to make sure that we are introducing our universities to the whole world as an excellence centre. It's excellence in whatever we are offering, both in education and research, and in other areas where they can be entrepreneurial, so that they can further think of their Canadian experience as something they can take and continue after their studies.
That is one role; however, there is another piece that is quite important, which is how either provincial or federal governments should present a really attractive picture of Canada to the entire world.
Furthermore, when a student or talent is hired—and last year, 35% of our faculty members came from other countries internationally. When they physically go to a Canadian consulate or visa office, they need to be met with, “We're really delighted that you're considering coming to Canada”, as opposed to, “Let's see what reasons we can find not to let you into Canada.”
I'm not being sarcastic because these are true stories that we hear from our students.
These are the kinds of initiatives that we need to put in place to ensure that we really are attracting the best and the brightest, because when we do that, the dividends are immeasurable.