UNCEDED SQUAMISH, TSLEIL-WAUTUTH, AND MUSQUEAM TERRITORIES/VANCOUVER, BC - BC students are once again calling for the provincial government to properly fund the post-secondary education system to stop the reliance on and exploitation of international students.
“International students are being used as a scapegoat for the housing crisis and the actions of predatory post-secondary institutions,” said Manpreet, Chairperson of the Alliance of BC Students (ABCS). “This visa cap is not going to solve the important issues we are facing. If governments really want to address these issues, they need to increase public funding to B.C.’s post-secondary education system, build more student housing, cap international student tuition increases to the same rate as domestic students, and mandate that post-secondary institutions provide adequate support for international students.”
As the reduction in the number of international student visas next year will significantly impact the funding of the post-secondary system in BC, the Alliance of BC Students is reissuing its call to the provincial government to step up and fill the gap in funding, and hopes to see this reflected in the outcome of the BC government’s Operating Grant Funding Formula Review. Currently, international student tuition contributes more to post-secondary institutions than the BC government does. BC government funding to post-secondary institutions has dropped from almost 90% in 1979 to 33.63% today, which is why public post-secondary institutions have relied on continuously increasing international student tuition and accepting more international students for funding.
For years, the Alliance of BC Students and other stakeholders have been calling out the province on the reliance of post-secondary institutions on international student tuition, pointing out that it is exploitative and unsustainable. The BC government has undertaken a review of how it funds BC’s public post-secondary institutions, but has yet to release it. As we did just a few months ago, the Alliance of BC Students calls on the BC government to increase funding to public post-secondary institutions to reduce the reliance on international student tuition and provide much-needed stability for an important but precariously situated sector.
“The provincial government needs to increase public funding to post-secondary institutions,” said Manpreet. “Domestic students aren’t subsidizing international students. In reality, international students not only subsidize the domestic post-secondary system through sky-high tuition rates, they contribute $4 billion and 40,000+ of jobs to the BC economy, as well as contributing to the cultural fabric of the province. And yet the Alliance of BC Students receives e-mails and phone calls weekly from international students across B.C. who are dealing with the exploitative practices of financial and educational institutions.” International students also contribute $22.3 billion to the Canadian economy, including $9.6 billion in tuition fees alone.
Canada has also seen a steady increase in racism and xenophobia towards immigrant populations and international students in recent years. “By choosing to blame international students for the housing crisis caused by the inaction of successive governments since the 1990s, the federal government is giving credence to the xenophobic belief that international students are the source of our problems,” said Manpreet. “Blaming international students causes harm and does nothing to solve any of the overlapping crises, which have been long in the making, that this country is currently experiencing.”
SOME NEW MEASURES SUPPORTED BY BC STUDENTS
The announcement by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada Minister Marc Miller contained some measures the Alliance supports, including exemptions for graduate students, requiring attestation letters from provinces and territories, and the adoption of a recognized institution framework for Designated Learning Institutions (DLIs) that set a higher standard for services, supports, and outcomes for international students, including prioritizing the processing of study permits for those institutions.
These are important measures that will reduce abuse and deception by predatory immigration consultants and post-secondary institutions. However, the BC government needs to further crackdown on predatory post-secondary institutions and unscrupulous international student recruiters and immigration consultants to end the big business of exploiting international students.
The government needs to regulate immigration consultants, who profit off of selling the “Canadian Experience” so would-be international students seeking a better life. The provincial government also needs to conduct more oversight of international student recruitment by both public and private post-secondary institutions.
The Alliance also supports exemptions that allow spousal work permits for partners of graduate students, as well as graduate students’ eligibility for 3 year Post Graduate Work Permits (PGWPs). This acknowledges the value of international graduate students and the role they play in BC’s talent recruitment and retention strategy and long-term economic development strategy. Despite being one of the main drivers of innovation, graduate students in BC and Canada are severely undervalued and underfunded by both provincial and federal governments; we must be aggressive in the competitive global market for international graduate students.
The federal government has taken an important step in recognizing the role of predatory post-secondary institutions, especially private colleges, in exploiting international students; for example, licensing-curriculum arrangements are too often used by private colleges to offer substandard education to aspiring international students far away from home using the brand of a trusted public post-secondary institution to increase their legitimacy to potential international students. The BC government needs to crack down on institutions who do not deliver adequate services or supports to international students.
CONTEXT
As Higher Education Strategies Associates noted in their 2019 report on the state of post-secondary education in Canada, “we are transitioning from a six-decade period where PSE was publicly-funded, into a new era where it can be better described as ‘publicly-aided’ … declining provincial governments’ funding of institutions is the main cause of this change”. In their 2023 report, they noted that “100% of all new operating income in Canadian higher education since 2008 has come from international tuition fees.”
To make up for the decline in government funding, post-secondary institutions have become reliant on international student tuition fees for core operating funding.
As a result, tuition has skyrocketed far past regular increases to account for inflation. From 1991 to 2018:
Domestic undergraduate tuition rose 185%
Domestic graduate tuition rose 332%
International undergraduate tuition rose 485%
International graduate tuition rose 726%
For more information please contact:
Manpreet
Chairperson
Pronouns: she/her
Alliance of British Columbia Students
e: chairperson@bcstudents.ca
www.bcstudents.ca
Joshua Millard
Executive Director
Pronouns: he/him
Alliance of British Columbia Students
c: (604) 600-6732
e: jmillard@bcstudents.ca
www.bcstudents.ca
The Alliance of British Columbia Students is a non-partisan society of student associations representing undergraduate, graduate, and trades students from across the province that exists to advocate on issues that affect post-secondary students in British Columbia.