B.C. colleges feeling the pinch after feds slash international student visas

Colleges in British Columbia are facing the prospect of layoffs and a reduction in student services as they grapple with the effects of the federal government’s clampdown on international students.

Citing concern about student exploitation and pressure on rental housing markets, Ottawa has slashed international student visas by 45 per cent this year.

Foreign students pay four to five times more than Canadians to study at B.C. post-secondary education, and the loss of that revenue is now being felt.

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“Our institutions have actually seen more than a 50-per cent drop in international student enrollment, so this has been a dramatic overnight cut in an important source of enrolment and revenue for colleges,” said Michael Conlon, executive director of the Federation of Post Secondary Educators.

“For the period of the last 10 years or so, both the federal and provincial government have encouraged, and in fact in some cases funded colleges and universities to chase international students around the world to come to Canada and study, it was a program they were proud of, and now the political winds have shifted, and we now basically see close to a shutdown.

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Camosun College on Vancouver Island is also feeling the pinch. The school will see 400 fewer international students than budgeted this year, and is facing a projected $5 million deficit next year.

In a statement, the college said it has “been forced to make the difficult decision of eliminating vacant positions and layoffs across all employee groups.”

Camosun College Faculty Association president Lynelle Yutani said the cuts will hurt students and staff.

“We are talking about major restructuring decisions, making decisions that can affect people’s lives, livelihood, and certainly have the same kind of effects on our students,” she said.

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“They are instructors who have been working for the college in many cases for years, sometimes decades, and teaching the sections of courses that students need in order to progress.”

Yutani said the crisis highlights years of underfunding to the province’s post-secondary institutions, who have been left reliant on international students to fill the gaps in their budgets.

She said schools in B.C. will be closely watching who B.C. Premier David Eby chooses as minister of post-secondary institutions next week, and will be pressuring them for help.