A year ago last week, the federal government unveiled Canada’s first International Education Strategy (IES), signalling that global perspectives and experience are needed to ensure Canada’s prosperity in the 21st century.

The IES is a major achievement for the education sector, which had been urging a pan-Canadian strategy for two decades. It demonstrates a remarkable degree of consensus across governments, organizations and institutions for a country where education is a provincial and territorial jurisdiction and there is no national education ministry. Moreover, international education increasingly viewed as a cross-cutting public policy priority, as its success underpins Canada’s diplomacy, trade and immigration objectives.