Students look at informations during the 3rd annual Vancouver International Universities Fair held in Vancouver, Canada, on April 29, 2018. (Xinhua/Liang Sen)
By Evan Duggan
VANCOUVER, April 29 (Xinhua) -- Grade 11 student Stella Weston peers around the massive Vancouver convention centre hall with a friend, as they consider their options.
Weston is here among about 3,000 other Vancouver high school students at the third annual Vancouver International Universities Fair. They're here trying to make the biggest decision so far in their young lives: where to go to university.
The one-day, three-hour event brings together about 150 colleges and universities from China, Canada, the United States and about nine other countries, including Britain, South Korea and Spain.
Among them are the University of California, China' s Duke Kunshan University and The University of Sydney in Australia.
"I just want to be informed," Weston tells Xinhua. "I have a couple of schools I'm interested in. I just want to gather a little bit of information."
Weston wants to take her time to make the right choice. "I have a little bit of time so I'm going to see what I'm interested in," she says, adding that she's pretty sure she wants to remain in Canada.
"I just think it doesn't make a ton of financial sense for me to go abroad," Weston says. "There's a lot of good local schools and we have a lot of good options in Canada and I'm just probably going to stay here."
Only about 2.3 percent of Canadian undergraduate students go abroad for their degree, according to the Canadian Bureau for International Education.
Several of the foreign schools here are aiming to boost that number. Beth Sutcliffe is here pitching Durham University, which is in the U.K. She says about 30 percent of their students are from outside of the U.K.
"This is a really great way of meeting students at both private and public schools who are starting to explore that higher education journey," she says.
She says students seem to be thinking about their university educations much earlier these days.
"It's just because there's so many opportunities for them on the table," Sutcliffe says. "Depending on where they want to go, it's worthwhile starting early to see what opportunities there might be just in case they need to put specific classes in place or some of these specific subjects of what they might want to do."
She says for most students, choosing where they want to study is a "head and a heart" decision.
Events like this are for the head; an opportunity to ask questions and get informed. A visit to the school itself helps to figure out what the heart wants.
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology is also interested in welcoming more international students, said Michelle Lui, an outreach coordinator for the school.
"Having more diversified international student body actually benefits both international students and local students," she says, noting that about 20 percent of their students come from abroad.
She says they're are aiming to educate more "global citizens." The Vancouver event is arranged by the National Association of College Admission Councillors and marks the only iteration that takes place outside of the U.S., said the event's co-chairperson, Nancy Cromarty.
"The world is a smaller place," she says. "There are a lot of opportunities out there that used to seem quite grandiose. Now it's a reality check. Going to the U.S. or going to the U.K. is something that's within reach."
