The absence of tuition protections allows universities to suck international students dry
Although it is common practice for universities to raise tuition annually, to do so during a global pandemic as though the rest of the world is immune to the virus and its economic effects is disgraceful. The absence of tuition protections for international students allows universities to make cash cows out of foreign pupils.
Per university and study permit conditions, international students are required to take a minimum of 12 credits per semester at UFV. Unlike the previous year’s flat fee of $8,925 for a maximum of five courses, UFV has now adopted a per-credit system at $630 each, swelling up the cost of tuition to $9,450 for five three-credit courses.
| Credits per course | Courses per semester | 2019/2020
($) |
2020/2021
($) |
Percentage change |
| 3 | 4 | 8,925 | 7,560 | -15.3% |
| 3 | 5 | 8,925 | 9,450 | +5.9% |
| 4 | 4 | 8,925 | 10,080 | +12.9% |
| 4 | 5 | 8,925 | 12,600 | +41.2% |
This is especially blatant because the previous year’s flat fee bore no specifications regarding an upper credit limit (with the exception of ELS programs), meaning students could have taken five four-credit courses for $8,925. But if they were to do so this year, they would be invoiced $12,600 — an increase of $3,675 or about 41 per cent. A domestic student would only pay $3,380 for the same course load.
I am going to spare myself the effort of having to spell out the absurdity of the situation. Instead, I will speculate the reasons behind post-secondary education stooping to such a business-oriented state. First enabled in Ontario under Mike Harris’s government, the 1996 deregulation of international tuition posed a financial incentive for universities. As plainly stated in UFV’s financial report for the previous business year, unlike domestic tuition, which is regulated by the provincial Tuition Limit Policy, “International student fees are not subject to government restrictions or limits.” In other words, the lack of a ceiling price allows universities to increase tuition heedlessly and enjoy exponential profits without government interference.
According to TVO’s Ira Basen, under Canada’s Student Direct Stream agreements: “If you’re a high-school graduate from one of those countries [China, India, Morocco, Pakistan, the Philippines, Senegal, or Vietnam], can demonstrate that you have $15,000 to pay your first year of tuition, have purchased a $10,000 guaranteed investment certificate from a participating bank, and have met the minimum standard on an IELTS exam — the internationally recognized test for English-language proficiency — your admission to the Ontario college of your choice is virtually assured.” In other words, the government has enabled universities to disregard standards of meritocracy that nominally distinguish education from other products and services.
In order to secure international applicants, universities even go as far as to commission recruitment agencies, which Basen describes as such: “Of the estimated 23,000 agencies operating worldwide, some are large international-recruiting companies that send thousands of students to Canada every year. For every student the agent delivers, the college pays a commission, usually around 15 per cent, or about $2,000 each.” UFV is no exception to this shameful practice. In fact, UFV’s annual financial report indicates an increase of approximately $600,000 under “other costs” over the past year — an increase “primarily due to higher commission costs related to the recruitment of international students.” This is an operation susceptible to fraud and corruption.
However, because Canada is increasingly sought after by international students for higher education, it is easy for Canadians to assume that international students are wealthy, since their tuition is approximately three times that of domestic students. But this is largely a myth. Many international students in Canada come from India, where households have a much lower average income than in Canada; the top one per cent of earners in India have a yearly pre-tax annual income of around $102,000 CAD, compared to the average income of Canadians overall, which is about $48,000 CAD according to 2017 data from Statistics Canada. With top earners in India only making double the income of the average Canadian, it begins to paint a picture of the income of the majority of Indian families.
So, given the economic drought the pandemic has brought on, families of many international students are struggling to counter the unforeseen consequences. Moreover, international students are only allowed to work part-time, and have been largely left behind by the Canadian government’s COVID-19 response. For UFV to increase tuition is simply callous, especially considering how domestic students are demanding tuition be lowered on the basis that online courses are inferior to in-person ones. Meanwhile, international students are demanding fee increases to freeze, not a reduction, but there is little to suggest that universities will listen.
Without sufficient tuition protections for international students, prospective applicants will be deterred from applying to UFV, as well as other Canadian universities. I suspect that domestic students, who are now protected under the Tuition Limit Policy, are also bound to the same fate if universities continue to treat qualification training as but a monetary transaction. In order to maintain the integrity of the education system, it is only right that UFV take immediate action.
Illustration: Shara Hamed/The Cascade
