Evidence of meeting #4 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was institutions.
A video is available from Parliament.
President, Seneca Polytechnic
I'm not going to respond on behalf of other institutions, but I'd be happy to sit down with you, Mr. Davies—
President, Seneca Polytechnic
I'd be happy to sit down with you, Mr. Davies. I'm responsible for my institution, not everybody else's. I'd be happy to sit down with you and explain our business model and our strategic plan. It's not a cash grab. It's trying to make sure that our domestic students have great programs and great careers. That's what we're all about.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Julie Dzerowicz
Thank you so much, Mr. Davies.
Thank you, Mr. Agnew.
You have two minutes, Mr. Zuberi.
Liberal
Sameer Zuberi Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
Thank you.
I'd like to stick with Mr. Agnew.
Given that we've been talking a lot about domestic students, do you want to share with us what your institution has done to source domestic students and to promote domestic recruitment?
September 25th, 2025 / 5:30 p.m.
President, Seneca Polytechnic
We have a huge.... Well, it's not huge, but we have many people on our domestic recruitment team. We have a large marketing budget. We work very closely with all the regional high schools that would feed into our campuses. We go to adult learning centres. We do everything we possibly can. We love the school college work program, because it brings high school students onto our campuses so they can earn a high school credit and a college credit at the same time.
We work very hard because, as I said before, Toronto is a very competitive market and we have a lot of great institutions. We're doing our very best to make sure we continue to recruit great domestic students.
Liberal
Sameer Zuberi Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
I just want to ask all the witnesses an open question.
In terms of lessons that we can draw from international student programs in other countries, do you have suggestions on best practices that we can adopt from other countries when it comes to international student programs and recruitment?
President, Seneca Polytechnic
I think it was Mr. Asselin who talked about the competition out there in international education land. What's interesting is that it's no longer just the U.K. and Australia. There are countries throughout the world that are positioning themselves as international education hubs.
I'm worried that Canada is going in a different direction. Yes, as much as we need graduate-level talent, we need undergraduate-level talent as well. I think we really have to get back into that world. As others have said, we have to start the long journey of rebuilding our Canada brand.
