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Border states a key battleground as the struggle for international income intensifies

Source: Alamy

Hoping for a stampede: some universities in Canadian border states are trying to lure US students with heavily cut fees

There is a border war raging between the US and Canada: a battle for students that offers colourful proof of intensifying competition for international students.

The first salvo was fired by the University of Windsor in the Canadian province of Ontario, just across the border from the US city of Detroit. Starting this year, it is offering a “US Neighbour Fee” of half its usual price for first-year American undergraduates – C$5, 000 (£2, 900) a year instead of the C$10, 000 it used to charge.

Michigan’s Wayne State University returned fire from the American side, lowering its tuition for students from Ontario to the same amount that in-state undergraduates pay, plus 10 per cent: that comes to about $10, 000, a saving of $11, 633 a year compared with what Ontarians previously were charged.

All this is playing out against the backdrop of falling enrolment in the US and concerted pressure on universities in Canada to increase further their international student numbers, which have gone up 50 per cent over the past decade.

As more countries vie for international business, “you are seeing national governments driving national strategies, and I think you’ll see more of it”, said Allan Goodman, president of the Institute of International Education.

He added: “Maybe a decade ago, if you said there’s a concerted national government effort to promote a country as a destination for international students, you were mainly talking about Australia. Today you have to talk about Canada, Germany, France, Spain, the UK, all with national government-level efforts to attract international students.”

About 10 per cent of students in Canada come from outside the country, generating C$8 billion (£4.6 billion) a year – more than the nation earns from exports of wheat, according to the government.

The national goal is to double the percentage by 2022.

Northern exposure

The most appealing target is Americans, 9, 190 of whom already go to universities north of the International Boundary. That makes Canada the most popular destination for US students after the UK, which gets 16, 185.