BIV MAGAZINE
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STUDIES ABROAD Pandemic creates complications, but Canadian MBA programs are adjusting
M CHUCK CHIANG
BA programs have long touted accessibility to the global marketplace as a key selling point to potential students, but has the COVID-19 pandemic dampened demand for such programs?
The answer is somewhat complex, say top Canadian education sector officials monitoring trends since the pandemic drastically changed people’s ability to travel freely from country to country. What is unmistakable, says industry veteran and seasoned educator Sheldon Levy, is that the existing travel restrictions and quarantine rules have definitely affected Canadian students’ ability and willingness to go abroad as part of their studies. “If it was difficult before the pandemic, it is unmistakably — and rightly — more difficult now,” says Levy, who
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is currently the interim president at University Canada West. “Health and safety is going to be more of a pull factor for students to stay in Canada more than ever before. The flow of students going abroad was already a trickle when compared with the intake of international students coming here, but this pandemic has made it as if the tap’s completely turned off.” As Levy notes, even for students in globally mobile MBA programs, getting Canadians to take up opportunities to go abroad was a challenge even before the pandemic. One such example can be seen in the demand for the working
2022-01-12 10:13 AM
