AUCC Quickly Graduates into The IFI Educational Market

It was two years in the making but John Coleman, Director, Multilateral Banks Projects, International and Canadian Programs Branch, and his colleagues at the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) have won their first International Financial Institution (IFI) contract.

The global education market is varied. One aspect is attracting students from abroad, which adds variety to life on Canadian campuses while attracting the overseas fees foreign students pay. A second aspect is introducing university or college courses on campuses abroad, which can be a lucrative sideline for Canadian institutions, and usually involves service contracts for the supply of Canadian professors, courses and teaching materials. The third area, where Coleman and his colleagues at AUCC are involved, is supplying Canadian expertise in technical assistance projects aimed at helping developing countries improve their education systems.

" We concentrate on selling Canadian expertise in education, mainly for development projects funded by IFIs," explains Coleman, " but also for projects aimed at fostering good governance in areas like judicial or financial systems."

" There is already a substantial activity in educational co-operation opened up through bilateral Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) contracts. We are building on that with our efforts to find, win and implement educational reform projects in developing countries funded by IFIs."

It is a large market, although difficult to quantify exactly. Education projects account for about 7% of total development bank lending -- about US$40 billion a year. Most of this is spent on bricks and mortar, equipment, teaching materials and local experts, but approximately US$150 million a year is spent on international education consulting services. This is the market in which AUCC competes.

" The development banks' education projects involve a number of priorities," says Coleman. " These include teacher training, curriculum development, testing and evaluation, new learning materials, new delivery modes, including distance education, improved education management and finance, and heightened local community involvement. Most of the IFI money goes to improving " basic education," at the primary or secondary school levels, and to literacy and skills development, though some is directed toward strengthening higher education."

Coleman, who was formerly a senior official at the Department of Finance, and later, Canadian Executive Director of the European Bank in London, began his work at the AUCC at the beginning of 1999. The AUCC represents all 92 of Canada's degree-granting universities and colleges in Canada and abroad and is committed to the internationalization of higher education in Canada.

Coleman set about pursuing IFI contracts systematically.

The first phase was to do market research, to read briefings and monitor IFI Web sites, and to meet with IFI officials, education experts in developing countries, and with Canadians in the business to assess the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead.

Sooner than expected, AUCC was invited to bid on a small World Bank-financed project in Russia in the field of fiscal federalism, building on experience acquired in a similar CIDA project in that country. Coleman found a partner in ARA/KPMG, and developed what proved to be " a technically excellent proposal," but one that lost to lower priced competition from a Russian consulting firm.

Coleman has no regrets about the loss in Russia. This is a business where you need " to get bloodied to get good." " It was important to try," says Coleman with a smile, " to graduate from studying the market to learning by failure."

In the second year, Coleman focused on what his market research had told him was a promising market -- the technical assistance (TA) contracts offered by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). " These are untied funds for relatively small-scale projects ranging from US$200,000 to US$2 million," says Coleman. " They are let out by ABD officials directly, which makes the bidding process less complex and more transparent than can be the case otherwise. Any newcomer firm to the IFI market for services should consider this avenue, provided it already has a good reason to work in the Asian market" .

Coleman did, and halfway through his second year, got on a short list for a non-formal education contract in Bangladesh after a period in which " we pursued every opportunity that walked" at the ADB. With the aid of an informal team of his colleagues at AUCC, and a Program for Export Market Development (PEMD) grant for up to 50 percent of consulting, travel and promotional materials costs, which allowed AUCC to hire a second person to work on bank projects, AUCC won its first IFI contract, for US$600,000.

Much preparation went into the second attempt to turn a short listing into a contract. There was, for instance, a site trip that led to signing on Bangladesh's top educational consulting firm, Pathmark Associates, as a local partner to work with the team of consultants AUCC had identified.

Now with the project being implemented, the pace is accelerating even more. Implementation is underway, and, in the meantime, AUCC has been shortlisted and has just submitted proposals on two more ADB TAs, one substantially larger.

" Doing these two new proposals in the same time period made us feel we had begun to figure out this complicated business," says Coleman. " The key has been to build the right kind of team and to work as one. Now we're waiting to see whether we can make it happen twice, or even three times."

For more information, contact:

Export Financing Division, DFAIT
Tel.: (613) 995-7257
Email: ifinet@international.gc.ca
Internet: ../ifinet/menu.htm/menu.htm