Every school of higher education benefits from diversity — diversity of opinion, diversity within its student population and diversity among its teachers.
However, a new federal plan to nearly double the number of foreign students in Canada by 2022 is raising concerns about whether universities and colleges can absorb the influx of new bodies, especially from other countries, without jeopardizing students’ university experience.
The federal government’s international education strategy, unveiled recently by International Trade Minister Ed Fast, aims to have 450,000 foreign students studying in Canada by 2022, up from 265,000 in 2012. Cash-strapped Canadian universities and colleges have mostly welcomed the idea, even as critics call the plan short on details.
The concern is that although an influx of offshore students into Canadian universities might solve a difficulty for government, inasmuch as students paying higher non-resident fees get government off the hook for prioritizing and adequately funding tertiary education, it could create more problems than it solves.
The differential in fee structure is significant. The undergraduate per-credit fees at the University of Victoria are $337.20 for domestic students and $1,091.06 for international students. Other universities and faculties charge offshore students a differential of three to four times the fees for domestic ones.
Critics of the plan have questioned whether an influx of international students into a limited number of available placements will be at the cost of local applicants.
Some university leaders point out doubling the number of offshore students at Canadian universities without major infrastructure changes, more classrooms, more teachers and more language-support systems begins to look like a jigsaw puzzle with pieces missing and no picture on the box.
Solving that puzzle will require significant government funding if universities are not to be left holding an empty resources bag with overcrowded classrooms, overwhelmed extracurricular opportunities and understaffed teaching programs.
Fast insists his plan is realistic and will not take spaces from Canadian students.
That brings up another question: Will university admission standards be the same for everybody?
In B.C., domestic applicants seeking admission into one of B.C.’s universities must demonstrate an overall Grade 12 pass average in the vicinity of 80 per cent. That includes, with the University of British Columbia as an example, “a grade of 70 per cent or better on the provincial examination portion of B.C. English 12 or English Literature 12.”
At the University of Victoria, “Academic performance is the main criterion for admission and is used exclusively in the majority of cases.” B.C. students must have written provincial examinations in any subject where it is mandatory in order to meet B.C. Graduation Program requirements.
For international students, that is not the case. UVic also recognizes the Test of English as a Foreign Language for language proficiency.
UBC also lists eight other ways to meet the minimum English Language Admission Standard, including “four or more years at an eligible international secondary school that uses English as the language of instruction … in a country where the primary language is not English.”
At Simon Fraser University, offshore students who cannot immediately meet the language or literacy requirements will be signed up, but after admission will have to meet the English language competency requirements.
Again, all fair enough were it not for the ongoing kerfuffle about the legitimacy of some international schools and their grading practices.
Recently, Canadian teachers at one B.C.-certified school in northern China wrote to then-education minister Don McRae with accusations that the school is inflating marks so its fee-paying Chinese students can graduate with a B.C. certificate and qualify for Canadian universities.
Money talks, and diversity is prized, but hard-to-get Canadian university placements eventually feed Canadian graduates directly back into Canada’s economy. Perhaps a balance should be maintained between diversity, immediate fiscal need and domestic access to post-secondary opportunities.
Geoff Johnson is a retired superintendent of schools.
