Kwantlen is heading to Brazil in search of hungry minds.
John McKendry, President and Vice Chancellor of Kwantlen Polytechnic University is heading to Brazil on May 2 to explore opportunities for university partnerships and promote Kwantlen as a destination for Brazilian students.
McKendry is joined by over 30 Canadian university presidents in the mission to build and strengthen partnerships in research, innovation and higher education. Identified as one of the BRIC countries, Brazil, along with Russia, India and China, are known as large and emerging economic powers. “The mission to Brazil, being led by Canada’s Governor General, Dr. David Johnson, who served as Principal of McGill University and as President of the University of Waterloo, is a major event,” said McKendry. “It supports the International Education policy announced recently by Premier Christy Clark and also the priority given by the Prime Minister and Government of Canada to significantly increase the ties between Canada and Brazil in higher education and student mobility, research and development, and business and industry.” Canada-Brazil recently signed the Science Without Borders agreement facilitating over 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students attending Brazilian universities to come to a Canadian university for a year of study and work experience. Further to that, the Government of Brazil and leaders in the Brazilian private sector are funding 100,000 scholarships for that country’s students to travel the world to acquire needed skills and experience. Kwantlen will provide $125,000 in scholarships for Brazilian university students who wish to spend a year at Kwantlen as part of their undergraduate studies in Horticulture Science. Five undergraduate scholarships of $5,000 each will be awarded for five years to Brazilian students studying at Kwantlen for one year. “As a polytechnic university, Kwantlen has a fundamental role to play in such international relationships as they relate to its role of sustaining the development of the BC business sector, the economy and the labor market,” adds McKendry.
A recent report by the Canadian Bureau for International Education states that 91 per cent of employers it surveyed identified knowledge of other cultures as an asset in employees. At present, fewer than 3 in 10 Canadian students study abroad in any given year, and through this mission, Kwantlen Polytechnic University is actively looking at ways to increase this number.
For more information on the new Horticulture Science scholarship program, please contact Sandra Schinnerl, Director, International Students at: andra.schinnerl@kwantlen.ca