During the February 2014 North American Leaders’ Summit, Mexico and Canada agreed that education and innovation are among the strategic priorities of cooperation between our two countries. Following the summit, the Mexican government launched the Proyecta 10,000 program, an ambitious and transformational program whose goal is to have 10,000 Mexican undergraduate students, teachers and researchers study [ESL] in Canada by 2018. The importance of this strategic priority was reaffirmed during the June 2016 state visit to Canada of President Enrique Peña Nieto.

Increased opportunities and benefits for BC and Mexico

This year, the third year of the program, demand for educational opportunities in Canada has grown immensely, particularly in British Columbia. The Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs has informed us that they wish to send about 1,150 students to Canada in 2017, almost 10 times the number of students sent to Canada in each of the previous two years. We anticipate that BC institutional participation in Proyecta 10,000 will facilitate greater downstream opportunities for a range of educational engagements between BC and Mexico. The 2018 program is also anticipated to have increased participation from Canada, so this program offers medium-term opportunities for sustained cooperation for both recruitment and partnership development.  In light of current global economic and political conditions, the timing for engagement with the Mexican market is ideal.

Eligibility

The Ministry eagerly invites post secondary institutions from across British Columbia to submit proposals for this project. All BC public and private degree-granting post-secondary institutions and public language schools are eligible to submit proposals

Deadline

The Ministry has extended the February 15 deadline to Friday, March 3 to allow more BC institutions to submit bids. They also inform us that in light of the large number of students wishing to study in BC, they are pleased to consider proposals for groups ranging from approximately 20 – 50 students. Project details are in the attached documents.

How to submit proposals

If interested, your institution may submit proposals through the online portal by Friday, March 3.

If your proposal is accepted, you will be notified 20 days in advance of the course starting to formalize your participation and brief you on next steps.

Portal password: CANADA2017

Thank you for your positive consideration of this project.