While it’s not uncommon to find academics from abroad teaching at Canada’s universities, the federal government and post-secondary institutions are hoping to attract a fresh wave of star scholars into our lecture halls and research labs.
Quebec’s chief scientist, Rémi Quirion, has noticed increased interest in Canada of late, particularly from those stateside.
“I have CVs on my desk from scientists in the U.S., Canadian scientists in [the] U.S., American scientists and also immigrants,” he said from Quebec City.
“It’s a crisis mode a bit in the U.S. with the attack against science, the attack against universities. That’s different from a year and a half ago.”
Canada’s federal budget last week pledged a targeted injection of up to $1.7 billion over the next 13 years for measures to recruit top international talent, including senior scientists and scholars to serve as research leads and funding for their labs and projects. There would also be money to lure doctoral students, post-doctoral fellows and assistant professors to relocate to our universities.
Proponents say the strategy can mean top-tier learning for Canadian students and a boost to research innovation and excellence, a unique opportunity during this time of turbulence within the U.S. Yet concerns remain about whether it’s sustainable given our already strained post-secondary system and research community.
The University of Toronto — with more than 102,000 students, Canada’s largest by enrolment and among our top-ranked globally — is among the institutions welcoming international scholars. On Wednesday, it unveiled its latest batch of star hires from the U.S., along with a $24-million program to support new and existing post-doctoral researchers.
It’s all part of a larger, ongoing strategy to “dream big” and build a pipeline of talent the country needs, according to Melanie Woodin, U of T president and a professor of neuroscience.
U of T typically recruits about 120 new faculty a year, with about half coming from abroad, Woodin said. However, given more opportunities for recruitment in the past year, she says the institution has doubled down to identify additional candidates who align with its — and Canada’s — priorities.
The current drive to draw in top talent “is a Canadian play to have Canada win, in what feels like a once-in-a-generation opportunity,” said Woodin.
Economist Mark Duggan, currently at Stanford University in California, will head the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and teach economics in U of T’s Faculty of Arts & Science.
He believes his research — which has examined health care, social programs, crime, homelessness and defence procurement — can contribute to issues “front and centre” for Canadians right now.
“It’s just super exciting to be going to Canada’s largest city … and at a time when I’m hopeful that — with my background and where Canada is at — I can add some value,” he said.
Duggan, economist Jacquelyn Pless and astrophysicist Sara Seager will begin in Toronto at the start of the 2026-27 academic year, the latter two making the jump from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The trio join other high-profile recent recruits from Yale University and the University of Southern California.
Woodin sees benefits for all sides. That includes the scholars — each of whom is thrilled to teach a large, diverse student body at the accessible, publicly funded university, she says — the undergrads keen to learn from these top thinkers and the graduate students eager to work alongside them.
Meanwhile, Canadian institutions are also forming international academic partnerships via other routes: the University of Ottawa, for instance, announced plans this month for a new “France-Canada campus” collaboration with France Universités, an umbrella group representing French institutions.
A system ‘in crisis:’ CAUT
Canadian professors have long welcomed colleagues from abroad, but newcomers today are joining a system in crisis, says Robin Whitaker, president of the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) and an associate professor of anthropology at Memorial University in St. John’s.
“They are being welcomed to a system that is facing a funding crisis, where existing researchers are struggling,” she said.
Amid further planned cuts to international student enrolment — a population whose tuition helped colleges and universities make up for years of dwindling provincial funding, Whitaker notes — Canada’s foundation of a strong, public post-secondary education and research system faces severe challenges.
As post-secondary faculty and staffers across Canada lose jobs, institutions close or suspend programs and current researchers don’t get needed support, “we think that a lot more needs to be done to stabilize the system,” she said.
“Are we going to support talent here in Canada and the development of our students and our researchers who are here?'” Whitaker asked, adding that simply injecting a wave of high-profile academics at the top without supporting the foundation beneath them is “going to leave us short-changed.”
Boost base funding: Quebec chief scientist
Back in Quebec, Quirion sees the federal talent-seeking approach as a good first step, but believes Canada’s base budget of research funding — which should be distributed across fields and not just in priority areas, he says — needs to at least double, especially if we’re planning to inject a wave of new folks who’ll also eventually want a slice of that pie.
At the moment, the success rate for grant applicants to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research — one of Canada’s three primary federal research funding bodies — sits at about 15 per cent, Quirion said.
“If you increase the number of scientists that will apply for the same budget, it will be a terrible type of situation,” he said, with even tougher competition and even more excellent proposals left unfunded.
Rather than prioritizing Nobel-level superstars who may stay just a few years, Quirion favours more support for early-stage researchers: domestic and international grad students eager to develop long careers in Canada or who, after returning to homes abroad, will continue to partner with Canadian colleagues over the decades.
In the meantime, incoming U of T professor Duggan says he believes drawing outside talent to Canada can be a positive, forward-thinking approach in the long run, if done well.
“I tend to resonate most with people who are looking ahead and thinking about our kids and our grandkids and making things better for them — that’s the kind of policy that I tend to get most enthusiastic about,” he said.
“I’m eager to get things done that help students, that help research, that help the world.”
Former Stanford economist Mark Duggan, Jacquelyn Pless from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Canadian-born astrophysicist Sara Seager, also from MIT, are coming to the University of Toronto as top minds in the U.S. look elsewhere in a climate where the Trump administration is at odds with many of the top colleges and universities.
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