Okanagan College president supports post-secondary changes for international students

The president of Okanagan College says he supports the provincial government’s new rules aimed at improving post-secondary education for international students.

“At the highest level, we’re obviously very much in support of what (B.C. Minister of Post-Secondary Education Selina) Robinson has announced regarding things like ethicality, fair treatment and overall, really strong support for students from outside of Canada,” said Okanagan College president Neil Fassina.

On Monday, the B.C. government announced several ways it plans to bolster post-secondary education for foreign students, including putting a two-year freeze on all new international student applications until February 2026.

“We need to press pause while we strengthen the policies and regulations that protect students, and ensure we have a system to enforce the new regulations,” said Robinson.

“We will also be implementing more frequent inspections of private post-secondary institutions, to ensure that new and improved quality standards are met.”

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Other changes include inspecting private post-secondary institutions more regularly, higher standards of approval for private degree programs, minimum language requirements to help international students learn and public post-secondary institutions will be required to post tuition levels for students for the entire time they are studying.

These changes come after the province says it has been receiving complaints from those who chose B.C. as their destination to study abroad.

“We know that over the last few years, the international education system here in British Columbia has not been working as well as it should,” said Robinson.

“We’ve been hearing about poor quality education, a lack of instructors, and even scaring away students from lodging formal complaints.”

Fassina adds that Okanagan College is already setting a precedent when it comes to their curriculum, services, and supports available to foreign students.

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“Our international team literally reaches out almost from the moment of acceptance. They make sure the student and their family understands what’s involved in travelling to Canada, what’s involved when they get to the Okanagan Valley, how to find places to live, what some of their expenses are going to be, all the way through to when they’re crossing the stage at convocation,” said Fassina.”

“Our international education team is there to make sure that those students have an unbelievable experience while they’re here studying with us.”

Roughly 16 per cent of students enrolled at OC are from outside Canada, with campuses in Penticton, Vernon and Salmon Arm seeing much of the growth, according to Fassina.

There are roughly 175,000 international post-secondary students in B.C., and about 82,000 attend public institutions like Okanagan College or UBC-Okanagan, while the majority attend privately-run institutions.

Global News reached out to several private education providers in Kelowna, but no one could be made available for an interview.