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At the University of Waterloo, a number of high-level university scholars – mostly in the maths, engineering and science – contacted administrators shortly after the U.K. voted to leave the European Community last June.

Feridun Hamdullahpur, the university’s president, said he could not reveal identities yet but three major catches are in the final stages of negotiating contracts, the first likely to be announced within a week or two.

He described them as “stellar researchers,” at least as good in quality as those typically awarded federally funded Canada Research Chairs.

“These are very senior, top-level academic colleagues who have contacted us … to say that they were very interested in moving to Canada, moving to the University of Waterloo, right after the Brexit vote,” said Hamdullahpur. “They cited several reasons why they were doing this, but they said that Canada would be a better place for them to raise their families, and also continue their academic careers.”

Much has been said about the surge in foreign students applying to Canadian schools in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. election, but the recruitment of top-notch and otherwise hard-to-woo faculty could have a much more lasting impact.

Like Waterloo and other universities, U of T has always recruited a sizeable chunk of its faculty from outside the country, but at a recent meeting of 100 or so department heads, Gertler asked how many had received unsolicited overtures about moving here from foreign professors recently. Three quarters shot up their hands.