The main idea of my news story is to
- show the trend of the share domestic and international students at BC universities over a 5 year period. Ultimately, the percentage of international students at BC universities is increasing while the share of domestic students remains virtually flat.
- illustrate the concentration of international students to two specific schools: UBC and SFU, and discuss what that could mean for domestic students who want to apply to these schools.
This chart illustrates the first above mentioned point:
I received some quotes from Feng Hou, who works for Statscan. In regards to the influx of foreign students from 2008-2013, he says there is one obvious reason:
"Canadian federal government, provincial governments and universities have been aggressively recruiting foreign students in order to bring in much needed revenues and more fully use the under-utilized educational resources existed in Canadian institutions."
In regards to the main countries Vancouver is receiving international students from, Hou says "in recent years, the main source countries are China, India, and Korea", and that Vancouver and Toronto are among the most popular choices for students coming to study. Hou says there are a few reasons for this:
"First, the universities are prestigious, large, and well-known in the world. Second,most foreign students, like recent immigrants, came from large metropolis in their home countries and prefer to live in large metropolitan areas once they come Canada."
As well, Hou's studies have found that another thing that makes Vancouver (and Toronto) so attractive to students is that "[they] have a large Asian immigrant population and well-developed ethnic business and social networks. This certainly is also an important attraction".
One question that I cannot answer is "what programs are most attractive to foreign students" that bring SFU and UBC to the forefront for these students. Given that schools such as Emily Carr have virtually no foreign students, perhaps more general, academic programs are the target for these students. The only dataset I could think of that might answer this is some sort of list of all of the international students enrolled (or graduated from) each individual program, for each school, over the same 5 years.
Hey Alycia, this is really great work- looks like it's coming together nicely!
ReplyDeleteThe last question you have to answer seems really tricky but I think you have the right idea with asking for enrollment data. I think you might have some trouble from the schools being concern about privacy but I'm sure you'll be able to navigate that no problem.
Great story idea and progress, really interesting. Both of your charts are very clear. It might be interesting to also include an interview with a current international student and ask why he/she chose Vancouver to study in.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of your story and the chart you posted there presented well with the insights of the product. I totally agree with laura that interviewing an international student will help boost and add on to this story. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteAlycia,
ReplyDeleteWow, that's a lot of writing. I feel you could have gotten your point across in about half the words. So many quotes: it confused me that you have pull quotes as well as quotes in your text. Other than that, it's looking pretty good. I think the story shows an interesting trend here in B.C. I would like to know what this means for the future of domestic and international students here. While the numbers are not that shocking, I think a prediction from an expert could add more to an already well developed story.
Solid chart, solid quotes that back up the data. You're on a solid lead and I think what this data means to domestic students is an engaging story. Lot's of words but I can understand when you have so much to work with.
ReplyDelete