OTTAWA – For first year student Riley Alliman, the possibility of studying in Europe one day is an exciting proposition.
“I think I would gain better connections in the world and advance my career,” she said.
Alliman is a student of biopharmaceutical science at the University of Ottawa, and she said her hope is to become a medical researcher.
Adding that the opportunity to conduct some of her studies in a European Union country would allow her to broaden her expertise and learn how scientists elsewhere approach the same challenges.
“It allows us to further our knowledge in how other places are doing things, versus how maybe here we have different ideas of how we might do research in things like Parkinson’s, because that’s what I’m really into,” she said.
It’s that kind of enthusiasm that officials hope will fuel interest in the EU’s student scholarship program known as Erasmus+, in which Canada already participates. But as Ottawa and the EU explore ways of working closer together, negotiations are now underway to make Canada a full participant in the program.
If that happened, it would mean Canadian students would have access to grants and scholarships that would allow them to study in an EU country. It could also facilitate more transatlantic co-operation and research partnerships. That in turn could lead to economic growth, which is one reason why Canada and the EU are coming together in the first place.
“Ultimately, students gain from those experiences, and that certainly will influence perhaps their own trajectories in the future,” said Larissa Bezo, president and CEO of the Canadian Bureau for International Studies. “But we’re also talking about strengthening Canada’s talent pipeline while building lasting connections with Europe that support research, innovation, and ultimately economic growth.”
Jeremy Kinsman, a former Canadian ambassador to the EU, says the exchange is also a useful tool for bringing citizens of Canada and the European bloc closer together.
“It was always at the foundation of the European political project that if you get people to work together,” he said, “Then you’ll forge a sense of functional achievement much more easily. You’re not strangers anymore. You’re partners.”
Partners that work together in research, technology and industry, but also share values that are increasingly challenged around the world.
“I think when they’re talking about values, people think of democracy and civil rule by law,” said Kinsman. “But it’s much more than that. It’s internationalist values of co-operation, which Canada has been committed to since the end of the Second World War. The building of an international system that’s institutional, that enables countries to come together to do what they have to do.”
“No one country can do that alone, and they do much better in concert,” he added.
Still, there are questions about cost, and how much Canada would have to pay to participate in the Erasmus+ program.
Talks are now underway, as Canadian and EU officials also explore a potential “associate EU membership” for Canada.
