A Brief Introduction to the Realities of the International Student Experience

A note about this month’s Equity Monthly-we submitted this case for international students to the Select Standing Committee of the BC Government, alongside several other student unions across British Columbia. You can see their published report here

For many folks, post secondary education is a time of discovery. We’re learning about ourselves, about Friedrich Niche; how many days in a row is too many to have Kraft Dinner for, well, dinner, and also about the diverse cultures and people on campus. Thousands of international students are inspired to attend Canadian Post-Secondary at the behest of impassioned recruiters. These efforts allow institutions to meet the needs of their budgets, left short by inadequate government funding,  and fulfill their programming commitments to their students.

However, the truth is, this system is failing. International students are paying 3-5X more for their courses than their domestic peers. With no guarantee of how much their education is going to cost year over year, planning is impossible. Institutions are chronically underfunded, and thus are putting exorbitant financial pressures onto international students. We need better funding for our post-secondary institutions and regulated international fees for our peers from abroad.

Students are recruited for programming but are being misled as to how much their education will cost, and have no mechanism in place to predict their future expenses. This leaves them ill-equipped to budget and often forces them into precarious work situations in order to make ends meet. Domestic students have the security of a 2% cap on fee increases and student associations across BC and the country have been lobbying to see something similar for international students. Most other countries have international student contracts, which includes all of their education costs upfront, and allows students to effectively budget and thrive in their new city. 

Consider if you were to purchase a car, with a 4 year payment plan, you wouldn’t want those costs to change at the whim of the car dealership each summer. You would not agree to a payment plan that can so drastically change over time. It would be a bad investment and the risks would far outweigh the benefits of your car after 4 years. This unethical risk is why student groups  want to see a government-mandated cap on international student tuition fees. We need a reliable, reasonable price tag for all students. No more nonsense around international student fees.  

If you are interested in helping up lobby the government, or lobby Okanagan College to independently create their own cap on international student tuition fees, or support us in any of our other lobbying efforts, check out www.ocsu.ca

For more information on the realities of International Students in BC, check this out. 

In sol,

OCSU

By students, for students.