Several short-term recommendations contained in a strategic action plan for internationalization prepared for the University of French Ontario (UOF) more than three years ago have still not been followed, found The duty.
The report, obtained under the Access to Information Act, lists dozens of objectives and performance indicators, particularly for the reception of foreign students. They make up nearly three quarters of the first cohort of the establishment, which opened its doors in September, in Toronto.
According to Brigitte Martin, one of the five members of the Internationalization Committee — who drafted the action plan — the mandate was to produce within three months “a report and specific recommendations for developing a ‘internationalization for the UOF’. Claire Francoeur, the university’s communications director, says the recommendations weren’t “mandatory.” “What is mandatory is in the 2017 law on the University of French Ontario,” she says.
Some of the recommendations were nonetheless described as “fundamental” to the UOF’s international mission. This is the case of the creation, within one year, of a “department specializing in immigration in conjunction with the recruitment department and the student life department” which would employ an accredited immigration adviser. The UOF still does not employ any. An internal employee would be in the process of obtaining his accreditation, said the administration.
Bill C-35 amending the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act prohibits anyone other than an accredited representative from giving immigration advice. “The transition of international students to permanent residency is a critical issue in Canadian immigration policy,” the strategic plan states. Student services would be provided by the Office of the Registrar, the university said.
Housing assistance
According to the administration, the university registrar and its partner, the Center francophone du Grand Toronto (CFGT), would also be able to help students in their search for accommodation. Instead, the strategic plan for internationalization recommended a dedicated “welfare service” within a one-year horizon.
“The university must support students with a housing assistance policy, either by making rooms available in student residences and/or by a service [voué] to support the student in their research,” reads the report. An agreement affecting, among other things, access to housing has not yet been signed between the UOF and the CFGT, said Aline Nizigama, director of strategic projects, partnerships and communications of the CFGT.
The university does not operate its own on-campus residence halls at this time. In September, the university told the Duty that several real estate projects planned nearby were being studied and that a partnership with one of them could be realized “within a horizon of six to eight years”. The university has a partnership with the Parkside Student Residence, on the campus of Ryerson University, 2.5 kilometers from UOF. But no student is housed there at the moment, according to the site manager. Two students would arrive soon.
The committee’s report also recommended the creation of a system of sponsorship of foreign students by the Francophone community of Ontario. Within a one-year horizon, the strategic plan suggested promoting the program to Francophone communities to recruit godparents and family godmothers. These people would “commit to meeting [l’étudiant] regularly, [à] to introduce them to Ontario and serve as referents in case of difficulty for students,” the report proposes.
Claire Francoeur says these programs usually pair first-year students with third- or fourth-year students.
Governance
The strategic plan also recommended the recruitment of a person in charge of international communication and international marketing, so that the establishment has an effective policy for these activities. The establishment claims that its team has “extensive experience in local and international recruitment”. During an interview with the director general of the Assemblee de la Francophonie on Tuesday, the rector of the UOF, Pierre Ouellette, pointed out that the university had received a high number of applications for registration from foreign students that it has done “very, very little recruiting [international] “.
In January 2020, the university also hired Édith Dumont, former director of education and secretary-treasurer of the Conseil scolaire des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario, as vice-president of partnerships, communities and internationally. The strategic plan recommended the hiring of a vice-president for international affairs and partnerships within one year.
Obstacles along the way
The journey that led to the birth of the UOF has been strewn with pitfalls, including the pandemic, which has slowed the implementation of the suggestions in the report, the university argues. The Strategic Action Plan for Internationalization was released on March 28, 2018. Seven months later, on November 15, the Ontario government announced that it was ending funding for the UOF, which suspended “the almost all of the construction sites, ”advances the administration. They would not have resumed until 2020, when the province agreed with Ottawa on a funding agreement.
“Black Thursday [du 15 novembre], this has caused great uncertainty. Establishing international partnerships when you are not funded is difficult,” noted Université de Montréal professor Olivier Bégin-Caouette, a colleague of Brigitte Martin on the internationalization committee. Sixteen other reports were published in addition to the one for internationalization, but the latter was “one of the biggest”, according to Mr. Bégin-Caouette.
This story is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.