Thank you very much, committee members. Meeting here before you this afternoon brings back memories of appearing before this committee at the time of the free trade agreement. So it's nice to be back to see what progress has been made over the years.
I do not see this, as my colleague from Dalhousie sees it, just as a trade deal in the narrow context. I looked at The Chronicle-Herald this morning and it said trade pacts. I see it as Martha does—very much in a broader context. Given that it is called a comprehensive economic trade agreement, I see it as a natural step with respect to the EU, because over the years, so many foundations have been built for this, and my colleague has explained some of them in great detail.
What I would like to do this afternoon is not just specifically focus on Saint Mary's, although we have many linkages, particularly sister institutions where we link formally, and students. I'd rather look at some broader issues of the trade pact that I'm interested in. Again, given that I did appear before the committee back in the eighties and have followed the NAFTA agreement in the nineties, I want to come back to some of the context—back in the nineties some of us had visions of a trans-Atlantic trade partnership. It's nice, then, to see that here we are, later on, building on that.
Of course, some of us also had dreams, following NAFTA, of a North-South America hemispheric trade agreement. We still have work to do on that. Various governments over the years have built bilateral trade deals, so you can sort of start to see a process of how that's emerging.
Of course, Canada has been looking at a trade agreement with India, and most recently we have the Trans-Pacific Partnership. I'm sure you've had lots of presentations that have rehearsed the various arguments back and forth with respect to these kinds of arrangements. I really don't want to develop on that.
I want to build on the theme that my colleague has talked about, which is knowledge collaboration, particularly in the area of science and technology, which she's addressed, but also in the issue of management. This knowledge collaboration would flow and build on what we've already achieved by greater cooperation between the EU and Canada, because as we know, the world we're living in is far more transnational, dynamic, and increasingly competitive.
I do want to remind the committee, which I know you know, that Canada places 14th in the global competitiveness index. At one point we were tenth, in 2010-11, then 12th, in 2011-12, and it's not so long ago that we were eighth.
If we take higher education, I would argue it is now the global currency, enough for a key driver for what we want to achieve from this comprehensive agreement. If I look at the breakdown of the global competitive index, what I see is that in higher education, on quality we rank sixth. In other words, we're up there. In the quality of math and science, we rank 14th; in quality of management schools, we rank fifth. So we've got a lot of things going into this that help us.
If I think back to when I was a member of the advisory panel to Minister Fast on international education, one of the aspects that we dealt with there was in fact the advantage we have of quality and quality education.
I certainly see the collaboration of higher education institutions between Canada and the EU as a positive-sum game, as I also see the collaboration of firms. If I go back and look at some of the data that I'm aware of with respect to the EU and with respect to some of the structural changes that are occurring, and if I look at what the EU sees as its most innovative sectors and what it calls the European knowledge society, I see that these include life sciences and biotechnology, information society, energy and the environment, and sustainable growth.
Within that, their focus has been to support small and medium-sized enterprises, which we know are critical for innovation and job creation. They've also been involved in looking at the least developed areas within the EU, and also the upgrading of human capital. We all know the issues out there with respect to skills and the skills that Canada needs in the future. So if I look at those areas of interest within Europe, I think they match very well the interest within Canada.
If I look further on this for higher education, what is apparent is that given the scope, complexity, and cost of dealing with many of these scientific issues in their various forms, collaboration is the natural way to move forward, as I described it as a positive-sum game.
Joint research centres, which Martha Crago has just talked about, between Dalhousie and its partners, the exchange of scholars and students, are there but could be developed further—sharing information. If I go back and look at some of the indices that are out there with respect to internationally co-authored papers, and if I look at the EU, they're increasing dramatically; if I look at the United States, they're increasing dramatically. I saw some recent data for Italy, for example; again, for internationally co-authored papers, the growth is quite significant. Again, there is a lot of potential for our scientists in our faculty to be involved in this.
If I asked the question, what assets and activities could Canadian universities—and of course we have a wealth of them in Atlantic Canada—build on to contribute to the international trade priority, specifically in the case of the EU, they would be: international students, coming back to the Chakma report that I mentioned I was part of the panel for; international faculty; international research and collaboration; partnerships and networks; and the global quality of the Canadian educational experience, as validated by the World Economic Forum in terms of the global competitiveness index. If I then think with respect to the knowledge and skills that our public and private sectors would bring to this, we have a wealth of cultures, a wealth of languages, history, societal—you name it, it's all there. Communication, decision-making, dispute resolution—we have it all in Canada.
If I then drill down further and say, what role could Canadian universities help play, both the public and private sectors, in accessing these knowledge and skills, then let me focus, first of all, on the brand of Canadian universities, which is very, very strong, to attract more international students. Expand the potential for student co-op and internship programs, linking in with the private sector, with our multinationals and firms that are operating in Europe. Expand the funding for the integration of university graduates into private sector research positions—so that goes beyond just the internship programs—with the idea, of course, as that report that we gave to Minister Fast talks about, of increasing the mobility of Canadian students. And certainly from the point of view of Atlantic Canada, Europe is really closer than the west coast of Canada, so there is a tremendous geographic advantage that we would have. There is potential to take the Canada research program and target researchers from Europe with respect to that. The potential of CFI funding has already been mentioned, so I won't go further on that. Again, there is the potential for more foreign-sponsored research to be done at Canadian universities from the European Union. There is potential, if there are any savings in the SR and ED program, to provide international research in commercialization projects, again geared towards Europe.
I think we could have more public policy forums with respect to the EU. I'm on the board for the Asia Pacific Foundation, for example, and we've been conducting across-the-country forums on what we call “conversations on Asia”. Again, conversations with respect to Europe would be very, very useful.
I will come back to my own institution. We have a number of research partnerships. We welcome a significant number of students from Europe. I think you're all aware that Europe—not just the EU, but the whole of Europe itself, and it extends to about 47 countries—in terms of the Bologna agreement, has gone through fundamental structural change. They have in fact been realigning their undergraduate and their graduate programs to more of an international norm. Again, I think there's potential for us there. We welcome many students, for example, from Germany on study abroad opportunities, typically in the fall semester. Those could be expanded into the future.
Members of the committee, I stand ready to answer any questions you may have.
My own university celebrated its 200th anniversary some years ago. Actually, Canada Post gave us a postage stamp in our honour. But as a stamp collector, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that some years ago Dalhousie Law School actually had a Canada Post stamp in their honour.
I stand ready to answer any questions, particularly if you want to get into the areas I'm really interested in, which actually would be trade and investment opportunities, because that's an area I do some research in.
Thank you.