BCCIE recently welcomed a delegation from Querétaro, Mexico, February 26 to March 3, for a week-long familiarization tour. The delegation, 11 in total, included the Deputy Minister of Education for the state of Querétaro, university presidents, and the Canadian Federal Trade Commissioner from the Canadian Embassy in Mexico City.

The objective of the tour was to advance and grow institutions’ respective internationalization objectives through strategic partnership development with key academic units.

The week started off with visits to Metro Vancouver post-secondary institutions including the University of British Columbia (UBC), University Canada West, BCIT, Capilano University, and Vancouver Community College.

The delegation then headed to Kamloops to visit Thompson Rivers University (TRU) and meet with Brett Fairbairn, TRU president, along with other key faculty and staff members to learn about the university’s programs and services. TRU signed multiple MOU’s with the delegation.

The final leg of tour ended in Kelowna with meetings with UBC-Okanagan and Okanagan College. Okanagan College President Neil Fassina signed a MOU on behalf of the college.

The initiative follows an academic partnership development visit to Mexico this past October where BCCIE signed a MOU with a consortium of six universities from the state of Querétaro. Last June, the Government of British Columbia also signed two MOU’s with the states of Jalisco and Guanajuato.