Student leader worries peers 'aren't going to find the supports that they need' this year

This school year has been a rough start for University of Regina student Daniella Iyaomolere. The digital marketing student is kicking off her second semester of undergraduate studies, juggling a tuition hike for international students as well as the scrapping of a plan that allowed them to pay incrementally.

There's also been a delay receiving her transit pass — paid for as part of her tuition — while she and some of her peers have been waitlisted for certain classes.

"Right now in school, it's a very rocky situation for students," said Iyaomolere. "Everyone feels tense. No one feels settled."

As they buckle down for a new fall term, post-secondary students, faculty, administrators and sector experts are worried, as institutions struggle with plummeting enrolment of students from abroad, financial and other ramifications of federal changes to stem the tide of international students in Canada and, in some regions, limits on domestic tuition.

Fewer courses, services

As a rep for the Black Students' Caucus of the Canadian Federation of Students, Iyaomolere had heard about students waitlisted for classes. This fall, she's one of them: on hold with more than 20 others for a required course that's a pre-requisite for another, come winter term.

Unsatisfied with faculty encouragement to "hope for the best and hope some other students drop out" — unlikely, she says, since it's a mandatory class — she's now questioning the quality of the schooling she's getting.

"I worry for my education," she said. "Will I be getting my money's worth? Because we are paying a lot for this."

In British Columbia, Victoria-based undergrad Vansh Kalra has also noticed shrinking course offerings. It's a reality he's already been adapting to in hopes of completing his diploma in business administration at Capilano University by next April as scheduled. That's meant occasionally taking courses at other schools — he's taken some at Thompson Rivers University, for example — to earn equivalent credit.

A buddy of his had just two courses left before graduation, but when one of the classes was unavailable, that friend was forced to take an additional semester and extend his international student visa.

"The courses the university was offering before are not the same amount [now]," said Kalra, who serves on the students' union at Cap U.

Post-secondary institutions in every region across the country are dealing with a budget crunch, says Gabriel Miller, president of Universities Canada, a national body representing the sector.

"Some are having to pull back on the range of programs they can offer," he said, while others may be trimming elsewhere, "like mental health supports that students need."

Service cuts for students are what Aditi Adhikari, a second-year PhD student of education at the University of British Columbia, is worried about.

Adhikari says her school has reduced funding for some groups, like UBC's Graduate Student Society, where she's a vice-president. That impacts their ability to fund peer advisers and stage student events.

"As the school year goes on, I'm concerned that students aren't going to find the supports that they need."

For its part, Ottawa says its changes were necessary because "the annual growth in the number of international students couldn't be sustained" while also ensuring they were properly supported, Laura Blondeau, a spokesperson for Immigration Minister Lena Diab, said in a statement.

The subsequent drop in applications Canada has received since is "a clear sign that the measures we've put in place are working," she added.

"We will continue to work closely with provinces and territories, designated learning institutions and national education stakeholders to develop a sustainable path forward for international students."

Impact to domestic students

Also worrisome for Miller? "The capacity of our universities to create spaces for Canadian-born students is starting to contract," he said.

It's particularly concerning for Ontario, which is home to more than 40 per cent of the country's university student population, as well as more than 40 per cent of all college students — and where domestic student enrolment is rising.

Approximately 111,000 students are starting their first year of university this fall — higher than the double-cohort year of 2003, when the province eliminated Gr. 13, according to Rob Kristofferson, a professor at Wilfrid Laurier University and president of the Ontario Confederation of University and Faculty Associations.

But coupled with an ongoing domestic tuition freeze, he says, "the pinch of chronic [provincial] underfunding" and the federal cap on international students, there's a significant financial gap.

Because foreign student tuition is several times greater, "even though we have more domestic students, we're decreasing our revenues," he said.

"So more students, less money."

This fall, that's meant some schools have trimmed down their electives, for instance, "and we're having to cram more and more students into the smaller number of courses that remain," he said.

Canada's brand, research sector impacted

This time last year, Ottawa widened the international student permit cap to encompass graduate students. That's now impacting the staffing of post-secondary research teams, says Daniel Jutras, rector of the Université de Montréal and chair of U15 Canada, which represents the country's leading research universities.

Those changes, along with recent delays in granting permits, have helped create an aura of unpredictability that's put off talented grad students, scholars and researchers from abroad, he said. And given the current tumultuous climate in the U.S., we're in a time when we could be attracting them.

"If Canada wants to position itself as a knowledge-based society and move in the direction of more productivity and innovation — both technical and social — it needs to rely on the influx of the best and brightest from abroad."

In trying to strike an appropriate balance for immigration, Canada's restrictions on international students have gone too far in the opposite direction, said Meti Basiri, co-founder of ApplyBoard, a platform that connects students with recruiters and post-secondary institutions.

With Canada's aging population and labour needs, Basiri believes sustainable immigration is key to success and international students are ideal, given their Canadian schooling and familiarity with the culture.

"We haven't got it right yet," he said. "Getting the balance is incredibly important for our next generation."

Back in Ottawa, Miller with Universities Canada is calling for better collaboration between educators, institutions, business leaders and governments going forward, repairing Canada's reputation as a desired destination for work and study, and support to figure out more sustainable funding for higher education.

"There's a smart way to bring down [international student] numbers.... And frankly, right now we've stumbled into doing it a dumb way and it's gonna cost all of us," Miller said.

"While we're keeping more people out, we're also losing more of the people that Canada wanted to keep — and that has big implications for our economy, the economy students are gonna graduate into and also for the universities themselves." (CBC)

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