The number of international students choosing to spend a semester abroad in the Nelson and Creston areas remain well below pre-pandemic levels.
School District 8 currently has 66 students for the 2023-24 academic year. That’s a drop from 89 total for the previous year, and from a high of 167 in 2018-19.
Kent Tamblyn, district principal of SD8’s international program, said district had only 34 students visit in the first year of COVID-19, during which international borders were closed halfway through the spring semester.
The new challenge is competing for students against other countries and even B.C. school districts that are renewing their international program.
“Those other countries have now opened up, and then there is a draw from Canada as more opportunity or more options for other countries became available.”
Fifty per cent of international students in SD8 originate in European countries, most of whom come from Germany. Asian countries, primarily Japan, account for 45 per cent of students, while just five per cent arrive from South America.
As part of its efforts to reinvigorate the international program, Tamblyn said the district is working toward a more diverse diaspora of students.
To do that, Tamblyn is focusing on what he called emerging markets such as Vietnam, where he’ll travel to in March to meet with recruitment agents. He describes Vietnam as having an expanding middle class and an interest in sending students abroad.
“There’s opportunity there because the parents are seeking educational experiences outside their own country.”
China, Brazil and Mexico are also new markets of focus for the district.
China, which Tamblyn said remains the top exporter of international students, has almost no students in SD8. Tamblyn is also planning a trip in the fall to open up opportunities in Brazil and Mexico.
“If we can increase the students coming from Asia and moreso South America, it would just bring a nice, well-rounded interculturalization and also would help expose the children in the district and the children that are coming into the district to different languages and cultures.”
The chase for international students is also a competition for their tuition.
Students pay $13,600 for five months or one semester in SD8, and $26,350 for two semesters or 10 months. The district made $336,593 from the program for the 2022-23 school year, but is projecting only $156,215 in revenue for the current year. Those funds are then redirected back into the district’s operating funds.
Superintendent Trish Smillie said the district’s goal is to host 65 full-time equivalent students, which equals to approximately 100 visitors during a school year.
The district, she said, has the classroom space for more international students, but the program is limited as well by the number of local families willing to be hosts.
“If suddenly we had more interest in parents becoming homestay families, we could consider increasing the number of full-time enrolments in the International Student Program.”
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