By Fred Morley
On the Third day of Christmas
My network gave to me... the EduNova Christmas Party.
EduNova is a Nova Scotia cooperative founded to promote international education in Nova Scotia. Given the numbers of university students flowing into Nova Scotia these days, I’d say Ava and her team are being very successful. Almost 10% of enrolments in Atlantic universities are international students.
Ok, I didn’t get to this reception either. Again something called me to City Hall. It would have been fun to get to the EduNova reception to see their new offices on Barrington St. It’s great to see a few organizations taking up space in historic buildings in downtown Halifax. We need more organizations like EduNova with the vision to see themselves in this kind of office space in the core.
This leads me to the next idea, universities as economic drivers in communities. Now this idea isn’t exactly new but I don’t think we’ve realized the full potential of this in Nova Scotia. In this province, universities directly and indirectly account for $1.2 billion in GDP each year, employ about 19,000 people and generate about $864 million in annual income and generate about $220 million in taxes. Talk about the Christmas gift that keeps on giving.
Universities are not only big economic generators in communities they are also centres of research and development and when they get it right, they also facilitate innovation and commercialization that helps drive business growth. They are also talent magnets. What other kind of organization attracts the world’s smartest young talent, integrates them into our community, and gives them marketable skills.
All we have to do as a community is keep them.
The Greater Halifax Partnership sees this as a real opportunity and has been driving some success through our International MBA Student Connector Program. We would love to expand our connector efforts to all students in Halifax if we could find the right partner......Hello? Idea alert... You don’t need to have Rudolph’s bright red nose to see that hanging on to new grads is probably a good idea.
Fred Morley is the Executive Vice President and Chief Economist at the Greater Halifax Partnership.
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