Quebec Premier Jean Charest hopes to establish a new system to help foreign students stay in Quebec to pursue their careers upon graduation. Charest says that more international students would help Quebec meet its demographic challenge caused by a low provincial birthrate.
If re-elected in the coming provincial election, Jean Charest and his Liberal team intend to implement a major campaign to recruit more international students. They plan to create a system that would issue special certificates to foreign graduates of Quebec post-secondary academic institutions. They hope to attract international students by advertising the province's need to fill 700,000 jobs by 2011, and by offering them a system which would speed up the processing of their immigration applications.
A recent Canadian Bureau for International Education study shows that less than one out of ten international graduates remains in Quebec upon graduation.
Quebec is holding a provincial election on December 8, 2008. These plans will be implemented if Premier Jean Charest's Liberals get re-elected.
