My final data project will be looking at the amount of foreign students in Canada.
I want to analyze the data set and compare the number of foreign student entries from 2012 and 2013 and see if there was an increase or decrease of foreign students coming to Canada.
The data set that I found includes information such as:
- The country where the students are originally from
- Amount of foreign student entries during 2012 (which is broken down into quarter 1, 2, 3, 4, year-to-date, and total throughout the year)
- Amount of foreign student entries during 2013 (which is broken down into quarter 1, 2, and year to date)
- Total amount of foreign student entries during each quarter and year-to-date
- In 2012, Which country had the most foreign students in Canada? The lowest?
- Do the top and lowest ranked countries for amount of foreign students in Canada have to do with their economy?
- What field of study are these students applying for?
- What consists of "other countries"? (the lowest ranked country could be in this category)
Update #2
The question that I chose to identify that is not answered by the data set I have is:
What consists of "other countries" ?
This is an important question to have answers to because the country with the least amount of foreign students in Canada could be found in the "other countries" record.
The "other countries" record was most likely created because there were many countries that had a very low count of foreign students in Canada and summing them up was probably a way to have a cleaner-looking data spreadsheet. Maybe if the all the countries were included in the data set, then there would be many records with a count of zero.
The data set states that Cuba has the least amount of foreign student entries in Canada, but this analysis could easily change once I find out what the "other countries" are, along with the number of foreign students in relation to those countries.
This data would probably be on an Excel spreadsheet that includes all the countries found on the data set I currently have, plus the "other countries".
The agency that I think would answer my question and have additional information would be Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC).
Update #3
I wanted to get in contact with Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) to get them to voluntarily provide the data I need.
The data I needed was:
What consists of "other countries" ?
There was a phone number and email address provided on the CIC website, but it clearly stated that it was only to be used by the media. It said, " If you are seeking information about your case or general immigration information, please see our 'contact us' page."
On their "contact us" page, there is a search bar to easily search and access answers to questions, and phone numbers to specific CIC offices such as visa application centres, processing centres, and offices for appointments.
I felt as though the data I needed couldn't be provided by these offices.
I decided to give that "for media only" phone number a call anyway. I said I am a journalism students looking for data regarding the total number of foreign student entries in Canada by source of country in an excel spreadsheet format.
Before I could go into further detail with what I was looking for, I was cut off and apologized to because they couldn't provided the data to a student.
This made me wish I retracted my statement of being a journalism student.
With that being a complete bust, I thought I would use the search bar on the "contact us" page and see what I could find. I typed in "Canada total foreign student entries."
On the third page, I found a link that surprisingly provided me with the data I was looking for. I now have a more detailed data set that I can work with, with more country records included.
There is still an "other countries" record with very small totals, but this is most likey due to privacy concerns.
These privacy concerns can be seen in cases such as this example:
If there is only one foreign student in Canada from Nauru, CIC may feel that listing that single student on a spreadsheet like that violates their privacy.
In my case, speaking directly with the agency didn't provide me with the data I needed, but curiously browsing through their website did.
Update #4
Stacy Ticne
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
12666 72nd Avenue
Surrey, B.C. V3W 2M8
March 22, 2014
Sarah Michaud
Access to Information and Privacy Coordinator
Access to Information and Privacy Division
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 1L1
Dear Ms. Michaud
Under the Access to Information Act, please provide me with:
• A complete list of number of foreign students who entered Canada, by country of origin from 2003-2013.
If possible, please provide this list in electronic database format (ie. Excel, Access or CSV). I would like each country on a separate row with the relevant information on each country in adjoining columns, and the year as data fields.
If for some reason providing the actual student counts for each country could violate individual students' privacy, you can provide me with the percentages for each year instead.
Please do not provide me with PDF files.
If for some reason providing the actual student counts for each country could violate individual students' privacy, you can provide me with the percentages for each year instead.
Please do not provide me with PDF files.
I have enclosed a bulk cheque for $5 to cover the fee associated with my request.
If you have any concerns, please email me at stacyticne@gmail.com
Please advise me when the material is available for release.
Sincerely,
Stacy Ticne
Interesting topic as a majority of enrolled students, as I've read in a Globe and Mail article, are international students.
ReplyDeleteMaybe one thing you could note is how this influx of foreign students affects the economy/does it all? Do these students leave immediately after their educational period is over?
As you have mentioned in class, it might be a bit difficult to find a good interview from a foreign student. Maybe find a representative from UBC that's in charge of foreign students.
Good work!
Hey pretty lady!
ReplyDeleteAll of your updates are clear and coherent, as well as developed and thoroughly thought out. Good Job! I also like how you explained what is included in your data set, making it easier for the reader (me) to not have to actually go to the data and read it myself to know whats going on. Considering we have tons of foreign students at Kwantlen, lots in just our program alone, I think your final project will be very successful.
This is an interesting pick. I know the fees for attending a Canadian school for a foreign student are a huge amount more. It would be neat to see detailed information on the foreign students coming here for schooling.
ReplyDeleteAll your updates seem very well detailed an organized. Foreign students is a good topic since there are a lot of them attending post-secondary institutions here. It sucks that the "for media only" call didn't give you the information just because you were only a student, but it was very lucky that you found the information elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteEvery one of your updates is very clear and understandable. With such a broad topic, you were able to narrow it down and really focus on what you wanted. I think with so many foreign students we tend to overlook how many there actually are, so it would be quite interesting to find out a little more information.
ReplyDeleteI find it rude that they didn't want to share information with a student, but I had similar situation in my projects - very discouraging. I think your topic is interesting and relevant as there are more and more students arrive to Canada every year(well, at least I think that the numbers are increasing, you know better). And I agree, that is is useful to compare numbers of students arriving from different countries.
ReplyDeleteI think your topic is really interesting! You see so many foreign students around that it's nice to finally get some numbers!
ReplyDelete