By Vanessa Broadbent (The Cascade) – Email
Those of us who grew up in the Fraser Valley know exactly what to expect from UFV. It’s a commuter campus, unless you’re embedded in a club or research program, not much seems to be happening, and Abbotsford isn’t exactly the most exciting city.
But this isn’t the case for most international students. They move halfway across the world, expecting typical North American university life — something that UFV is lacking.
“A lot of kids come with the notion that we are a North American campus that they see on TV or in movies,” says UFV’s head of international marketing, Ravi Philips. “To be honest, UFV’s very quiet … not much happens.”
Philips speculates that this is a cause of the way university life is portrayed in modern media. While Philips has found that the majority of students are content with UFV as an academic institution, the same can’t be said about living in Abbotsford.
“All these kids overseas have seen Hollywood movies and they see the campus life and kids having this and that,” he says. “A lot of people complain. They find Abbotsford is very boring … The transportation is bad, there’s not much entertainment, and they find it a very dry city.”
The main reason that Abbotsford is such a shock to incoming international students is because the cities they come from are significantly larger.
“I get students from Mumbai — that’s two thirds of Canada,” he says. “When they come here, they have a struggle. Dubai is [also] a happening, fun city, and they find this a prehistoric city.”
The transition from city life to rural-surrounded Abbotsford is too much for some students, despite how beautiful B.C. is.
“[Abbotsford] is a decent city, but for an 18-year-old, it’s a boring place,” Philips says. “There’s so much to see, the natural beauty is amazing, but an 18-year-old doesn’t look at that. They all are looking for the big city, they want those big buildings. They miss that.”
For some students, like CIS student Fahad Laatmimi, UFV was the only university he considered due to its CIS program. Laatmimi was content with UFV as an institution, but disappointed with engagement on campus.
“I wasn’t shocked about the school size — I actually expected that and I like that,” he says. “[But] I find it much harder to engage with the community here because of the lack of activities. I don’t feel like it’s not a welcoming community, just the lifestyle is not welcoming others.”
As part of UFV’s strategic enrollment management plan, attracting more international students every year is a major priority. The numbers show this is happening according to plan (a rise of 38 per cent over five years), but the process by which it happens is not so simple.
“You have to really market it,” Philips says. “Students these days have so many choices.”
Philips finds that while many students are attracted to the scenery in B.C. or the small class sizes that UFV offers, it’s the closeness to the United States that attracts most students.
“What’s a big seller internationally is proximity to the United States,” he says. “When you tell them we’re five minutes away from the U.S., for an 18-year-old, it’s so fascinating. I tell them we are the only university which is so close.”
Philips also finds that it’s not usually the students that are making the decision to come to UFV.
“Ninety-nine per cent of the students we get, their parents are funding them,” he says. “It appeals to the parents. For them, their investment is safer in Abbotsford than in Vancouver.”
Not all students are recruited through UFV’s international department. Mishal Alzeer, a graduating visual arts student from Saudi Arabia, found out about UFV through an international student recruitment agency.
“It’s pretty common back home where there are these agencies where they get acceptances from universities,” he explains.
Alzeer learned about UFV through an agent — like any sales opportunity, without the chance to tour the campus in person, part of the decision was a leap of faith.
“This guy was responsible for universities in Canada and UFV was part of his plan. He said that it’s pretty close to a bigger city, Vancouver, and all that, and he said the town is fun and the campus is very nice and beautiful, very modern,” Alzeer says. “He gave me these high expectations when I came here and it’s not exactly what he said. He was exaggerating, maybe for the money, I think.”
Aziz Almukhaylid, also from Saudi Arabia, had a similar experience with foreign agencies.
“I discovered that they take commission from us going there,” he says. “I don’t blame them for doing that, but at least you should be honest.”
Like most incoming international students, Alzeer expected more student engagement from UFV.
“When I first came here, I had higher expectations for the campus to be more active,” he says. “In terms of classes and the atmosphere, it … didn’t meet my standards.”
“I want to be more than just the students who come to classes and then go home and get a degree and leave,” he explains. “I want to be a university student.”
