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What’s behind the problems with Canada’s international student program?

Published

8 months ago

January 26, 2024

Colleges and universities in Canada are making billions from international students, but many of those students have spoken out about living under precarious conditions.

Jovial Orlachi Osundu, president of the international students association at the University of Moncton, says international students are being wrongfully blamed for housing and job shortages.

“It is pretty unfair to use them as scapegoats to explain the wrong decisions that our political actors took in the past,” Osundu said.

Schools are now facing major reductions in the number of study permits for international students that they’ll be allocated after the federal immigration minister announced a temporary cap on Monday, with the goal of targeting institutional “bad actors” and addressing the impact on the housing market.

But how did we get to this point in Canada’s international student program in the first place?

Why Canada’s international student program needs fixing

Many post-secondary schools have boosted international enrolment in recent years because provincial funding for colleges and universities has declined. But officials are calling out ‘bad actors’ who they say mislead students about the real cost of living and ‘puppy mill’ schools that don’t provide a quality education.

Breaking down post-secondary education funding

There are more than one million international students in Canada, according to figures from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

Economist Mike Moffatt, an assistant professor at the Ivey Business School at Western University in London, Ont., says post-secondary institutions boosted international enrolment in response to provincial governments cutting back on funding “over the last decade or more.”

In Ontario, data from the provincial government shows operating grants for universities were lower in 2021 — $8,350 per student — than in 2008, when they were $8,514 per student, not accounting for inflation.

“At least a handful of schools have kind of gone above and beyond what was necessary to fill in the financial blanks and have massively increased their enrolment,” Moffatt said.

Moffatt notes that colleges, in particular, are relying heavily on international students and it’s most pronounced in Ontario.

About 76 per cent of all tuition fees for colleges in that province come from international students, according to a report by consulting firm Higher Education Strategy Associates.

The report estimates that students from India alone will provide Ontario colleges with $2 billion in operating revenue for the 2023-2024 school year. That’s slightly more than those colleges receive from the provincial government.

Who are the ‘bad actors’ in the sector?

The surge in international students has coincided with reports of some recruiters misleading those students about the education they’ll receive and the real cost of living in Canada.

Both federal and provincial officials have referenced these “bad actors” in the post-secondary sector, who they say have preyed upon international students.

In a statement, Jill Dunlop, Ontario’s minister of colleges and universities, said “some bad actors are taking advantage of these students with false promises of guaranteed employment, residency and Canadian citizenship.”

CBC’s The Fifth Estate exposed some of those false promises in their undercover investigation in 2022 that exposed what some recruitment agents in Punjab, India, told students planning to study in Canada.

Education recruitment agents caught misleading student and father in India

The Fifth Estate went undercover in India to reveal the pitch made to some students planning to attend Canadian colleges. The father and son in this video are interested in a Canadian education and agreed to wear a hidden camera as they met agents.

The investigation found “sub-agents” working in the industry — recruiters who don’t work directly with schools, but through third-party aggregators.

A report from Ontario’s auditor general in 2021 found Canada’s increase in international students was influenced by prospective students viewing our post-secondary institutions as “a pathway for immigration.”

But a Statistics Canada study that same year found only about 30 per cent of people who come to Canada on a student visa obtained permanent residency within a decade.

Ashish Gill is a first-year hospitality student at Fanshawe College’s Toronto campus, which is part of a partnership with the private ILAC International College. Gill is from India and says he hopes he’s able to work in Canada once his studies are complete.

“People are here for the [permanent residency]. They have the mindset of getting P.R.,” Gill said.

George Jiang, an international student in his third year at the University of Prince Edward Island, agrees. “Most of us have a goal to immigrate to Canada,” he said. “The living quality is generally higher than a lot of our home countries.”

As the prospect of permanent residency has contributed to an increasing number of study permit applicants, many of those students are attending private colleges.

‘The diploma equivalent of puppy mills’

Federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller calls some private colleges in Canada “the diploma equivalent of puppy mills that are just churning out diplomas.”

Miller and other officials say these “puppy mill” schools are often entirely dependent on international student tuition. Some are located in strip malls and Miller says they don’t provide a quality educational experience.

Miller pointed to B.C. and Ontario in particular as areas where private institutions are giving out what he called “fake” degrees. He said these institutions have “exploded in the last couple years.”

B.C. to target ‘egregious’ providers who mistreat international students

B.C. is set to announce measures that will improve oversight and accountability of private education providers that advertise services to international students, Post-Secondary Education Minister Selina Robinson tells BC Today host Michelle Eliot.

Moffatt says part of the problem is that the responsibility for regulating the industry lies with multiple levels of government.

“It allows for a lot of finger-pointing between orders of government,” Moffatt said.

Prospective students who are applying for a study permit need an acceptance letter from a school that’s on Canada’s list of designated learning institutions. Provinces and territories are responsible for licensing those institutions and the federal government maintains the full list.

Canada needs to rein in institutions granting ‘fake’ degrees, minister says

Immigration Minister Marc Miller, who announced that the federal government will cap the number of international student permits over the next two years, told CBC’s David Cochrane that there are hundreds of ‘degree-granting institutions’ across the country, and that the provinces bear part of the responsibility for cracking down on them.

CBC News reached out to Miller’s office to ask whether “puppy mill” schools are on that list and how the federal government plans to address them if provinces and territories don’t act.

Julie Lafortune, a communications adviser for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), said in a statement that IRCC will adopt a “recognized institutions” framework to identify designated learning institutions that “set a higher standard.”

The statement says the government plans to implement that framework in time for the fall 2024 semester.

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Mitchell throws two TD passes as Ticats earn important 37-21 home win over Redblacks

Published

3 hours ago

September 14, 2024

Anne Joseph

HAMILTON – It remains faint but Bo Levi Mitchell and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats still have a playoff pulse.

Mitchell threw two touchdown passes as Hamilton defeated the Ottawa Redblacks 37-21 in the CFL’s annual Hall of Fame game Saturday afternoon. The Ticats (4-9) earned a second straight win to move to within six points of the third-place Toronto Argonauts (7-6) in the East Division.

Hamilton visits Toronto on Friday night.

“Obviously they’re (wins) huge now,” Mitchell said. “We didn’t do ourselves any favours by getting into this position and not being able to really control our own destiny.

“But right now, we need certain people to win at certain times. Our job is to go out there and try to win the next five, then the next three after that.”

Mitchell finished 20-of-27 passing for 299 yards and an interception. He entered weekend action leading the CFL in passing yards (3,383) and TD strikes (21).

Greg Bell’s 15-yard TD run at 11:30 of the fourth and two-point convert put Hamilton up 36-21 after backup Jeremiah Masoli led Ottawa on two scoring drives. Following a 13-yard TD strike to Andre Miller at 2:53, Masoli found Dominique Rhymes on a 10-yard touchdown pass at 7:43 before Khalan Laborn’s two-point convert cut Hamilton’s lead to 29-21.

“When you’re scoring from (15) yards out on a run play, that makes offence easy,” Mitchell said. “It’s one of those things when you get down there as a quarterback, it takes you sometimes five, eight, 10 plays and now it’s ‘OK, now we have to create some stuff and find something.’

“When you hand the ball off and you’re scoring from (15) yards, it makes the offence really easy.”

Ottawa (8-4-1) would have clinched a playoff spot with a victory.

Ottawa committed six turnovers (three interceptions, two fumbles, once on downs) before an announced Tim Hortons Field gathering of 22,119. Lawrence Woods III also returned a punt 83 yards for a touchdown at 11:51 of the first quarter that put Hamilton ahead 10-3.

“You’ve got to bring your best every single week and this wasn’t our best, all of us, from coaches to the players,” said Ottawa head coach Bob Dyce. “If you don’t play great for four quarters, I don’t care who you’re playing you’re not going to have a successful day.

“We should’ve made the tackle (on Woods), we had him wrapped up it’s that simple. Even though we didn’t make the play on that, there should’ve been extra bodies there to clean it up when he did break the tackle.”

Hamilton also tied the season series with Ottawa 1-1. The teams meet again at TD Place on Oct. 25.

“If we didn’t turn it over today I would’ve said we played really well offensively and that to me is what the biggest difference is,” said Hamilton head coach Scott Milanovich. “Even the turnovers today (interception, fumble), at least they were in their end and we weren’t giving them a short field.

“The biggest play of the game was Woodsie’s return. It got us jump-started, gave us the lead and we were kind of off after that.”

Ottawa starter Dru Brown was 17-of-27 passing for 164 yards and an interception. Masoli entered late in the third and finished 13-of-19 passing for 183 yards with two TDs and two interceptions, but Dyce said Brown will start next weekend against Montreal (10-2-1), which earned a 19-19 tie Saturday night with Calgary (4-8-1).

The Canadian Football Hall of Fame’s ’24 class of S.J. Green, Chad Owens, Weston Dressler, Vince Goldsmith and Vince Coleman, along with builders Ray Jauch and Ed Laverty (posthumously), was honoured at halftime. All were enshrined Friday night.

Steven Dunbar Jr. and Ante Litre had Hamilton’s other touchdowns. Marc Liegghio kicked two field goals, three converts and two singles.

Ottawa’s Lewis Ward booted two field goals and a convert.

Mitchell culminated a five-play, 96-yard march with a 20-yard TD pass to Litre at 13:34 of the third. It followed Jonathan Moxey’s interception.

Liegghio’s single at 7:05 of the third put Hamilton up 22-6.

Mitchell’s 54-yard TD strike to Dunbar at 14:18 of the second staked Hamilton to its 21-6 halftime lead. The advantage was well-deserved as the Ticats had more first downs (12-six), net offensive yards (260-144) and scored on both offence and special teams.

Mitchell was 14-of-20 passing for 210 yards and a TD, but his interception cost Hamilton at least a field-goal attempt. Dunbar had five receptions for 113 yards and the touchdown.

Brown completed 13-of-21 passes for 127 yards.

Liegghio’s missed 47-yard attempt went for the single at 12:45 to put Hamilton ahead 14-6. It followed a Kiondre Smith catch that was ruled incomplete and at the very least cost the Ticats a first down that would’ve kept the drive alive.

Ward’s 30-yard kick at 9:15 had pulled Ottawa to within 13-6.

Liegghio’s 19-yard field goal at 5:13 pushed Hamilton’s lead to 13-3. It followed the defence stopping Ottawa’s Dustin Crum on third-and-one, giving the Ticats possession at the Redblacks 40.

Liegghio’s 47-yard field goal opened the scoring at 2:42 before Ward tied in with a 24-yard boot at 8:44.

UP NEXT

Redblacks: Host the Montreal Alouettes (10-2-1) next Saturday, Sept. 21.

Tiger-Cats: Visit the Toronto Argonauts (7-6) on Friday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2024.

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Toronto FC downs Austin FC to pick up three much-needed points in MLS playoff push

Published

3 hours ago

September 14, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – Needing three points to keep their playoff push alive, Toronto FC’s Jonathan Osorio and Deandre Kerr stepped up with first-half goals against Austin FC on Saturday with goalkeeper Sean Johnson doing his bit at the other end.

A 76th-minute goal by Austin’s Owen Wolff made for a nervy ending but TFC hung on for a 2-1 win.

While Toronto (11-15-3) remains on the Major League Soccer playoff bubble in eighth place in the Eastern Conference (the eighth- and ninth-place teams in each conference square off in a wild-card playoff with the winner facing the top seed in the conference), other results went their way.

Seventh-place Charlotte, 10th-place Atlanta and 11th-place Philadelphia all lost while ninth-place D.C. United tied.

Toronto midfielder Alonso Coello called it “a game we had to win.”

“It’s a big win … To see that fight tonight was important,” added coach John Herdman.

Austin (9-12-7) came into the game in 11th place in the West, two points below ninth-place Minnesota. The Texas side has won just one of its last six league games (1-4-1).

Austin outshot Toronto 7-6 (6-2 edge in shots on target) in the first half but found itself trailing 2-0 at the break as Toronto took advantage of its chances and the visitors didn’t in their first-ever visit to BMO Field, before an announced crowd of 25,538.

Toronto had a dream start, catching Austin on the counterattack in the seventh minute. A sliding Austin player dispossessed an onrushing Kerr, who had been set free by a long ball from Coello, but the ball bounced to Osorio, who beat goalkeeper Brad Stuver with a rising shot.

It was the Toronto captain’s second goal of the season in league play and his 65th for TFC in all competitions. Only Sebastian Giovinco (83) and Jozy Altidore (79) scored more in Toronto colours.

TFC went ahead on another counterattack in the 30th minute after an Austin giveaway. Osorio found Richie Laryea outpacing his marker and the wingback unselfishly sent a perfect low cross across goal for Kerr to knock home for his third of the season.

Wolff, the son of Austin head coach Josh Wolff, made it interesting with his late strike. The 19-year-old U.S. youth international, controlling a long ball, beat defender Raoul Petretta and then waited out Johnson before slotting it home for his first of the season.

Toronto survived a nervy six minutes of stoppage time as Austin pressed for the equalizer. Austin outshot Toronto 14-9 (8-3 in shots on target) and had 52.5 per cent possession.

The win evened Toronto’s home record at 7-7-0, while Austin slipped to 3-8-3 on the road.

It was a costly evening for Austin with defender Brendan Hines-Ike, midfielder Jhojan Valencia and star attacker Sebastian Driussi allpicking up cautions to miss Wednesday’s game with Los Angeles FC due to yellow-card accumulation.

Toronto defender Shane O’Neill will miss Wednesday’s game against visiting Columbus for the same reason. Toronto could be short mid-week, too. The hope is veteran centre back Kevin Long, who missed Saturday’s game after tweaking his hamstring in training, will be good to go.

Toronto has five games remaining, including three more at home as it looks to return to the post-season for the first time since 2020 when it lost to Nashville after extra time at the first hurdle.

It is a challenging road.

TFC hosts Columbus, the New York Red Bulls and Inter Miami while playing away at the Colorado Rapids and Chicago Fire. All but Chicago are in playoff positions.

The only previous meeting between Toronto and Austin was in May 2023, when Zardes scored a 91st-minute winner to give Austin a 1-0 win over visiting Toronto, which was then mired at the bottom of the Eastern Conference. That loss prompted a post-game outburst from Italian star Federico Bernardeschi about TFC’s drab play.

Then-coach Bob Bradley benched Bernardeschi for the next game.

Current coach John Herdman made four changes to his starting 11 with Bernardeschi and Osorio returning from suspension and Coello and Kerr also slotting in. Coello, who had missed the last eight league games with a hamstring injury, was impressive in his 59-minute return.

Both Toronto and Austin suffered home losses last time out going into the international break. Toronto was beaten 3-1 by D.C. United while Austin lost 1-0 to Vancouver.

—

Follow @NeilMDavidson on X platform.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2024.

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CF Montreal finds its groove with 2-1 win over Charlotte

Published

3 hours ago

September 14, 2024

Anne Joseph

MONTREAL – CF Montreal is back in the win column after securing a 2-1 Major League Soccer win over Charlotte FC on Saturday night at Stade Saputo.

Montreal’s form had suffered of late, with just one win in MLS since July, but Laurent Courtois’ squad showed a level of poise and control over the tempo of the game that had not been seen since the beginning of the season.

“What we’ve changed in the last few weeks or months in terms of our methodology or coaching, is nothing. We did the exact thing, We had the exact same words, and we expressed them the exact same way,” said Courtois. “Today, everything just clicked.”

Caden Clark scored for the first time as a Montreal (7-12-9) player in the 23rd minute, in addition to Bryce Duke’s goal three minutes later that ended up being the winner, while Tim Ream found the back of the net for Charlotte (10-10-8).

Montreal had the first major scoring chance of the match after 15 minutes of play. With a free kick roughly 25 metres away from goal, Gabriele Corbo sent a near-perfect shot smashing off the crossbar.

Montreal would continue to dictate the tempo in the opening phase, finding first blood just seven minutes later.

Following a phenomenal triple-save from Charlotte goalkeeper Kristijan Kahlina, the ball fell to Clark who volleyed the ball into the wide-open net, picking up his first goal for the club.

“I think you don’t lose the feeling (of scoring), everything happens for a reason, you just can’t lose yourself in the chaos,” said Clark, who had missed a full season due to injury and was briefly without a club, but was grateful for Courtois’ confidence in him.

“(To have a coach’s confidence) is huge and is something I’ve had both ends of so you just can’t take advantage of that in the wrong way. I’m going to keep my discipline with the game plan and keep my head right.”

With momentum completely on their side, the home side doubled the lead just three minutes later. Montreal continued to build up play on the left flank and found a streaking Raheem Edwards in behind the defence who cut the ball back to Duke, sending the Stade Saputo crowd into a frenzy.

Just after the half-hour mark, Charlotte pulled one back through a set piece — something Montreal has struggled defending all season — as Ream rose above everyone at the back post to score his first with his new club.

The second half began in a similar fashion to the end of the first, with Charlotte pressing high up the pitch and forcing several turnovers in dangerous areas. After surviving the pressure, Montreal began to regain control of the game near the hour mark, enjoying the lion’s share of the possession while Charlotte looked to hit back on the counterattack.

“I think when we conceded that goal we were like ‘here we go again.’ 2-1 is a tough lead before halftime … and at the beginning of the half we kind of shot ourselves in the foot and they pressed a bit more, they moved a bit more forward and that opened some gaps,” said captain Samuel Piette.

“I was happy with that, it shows character. At the end of the day, we just wanted the three points and that’s what we got.”

As the game progressed, Charlotte pushed harder to find an equalizer but to no avail. With only one shot on target conceded, the second-worst defence in the league put up an impressive front and confidently rebuffed every single Charlotte attack.

“I’m a big fan of the back five’s performance in their discipline, competitiveness, and synchronization with balls in behind,” said Courtois.

“We can’t explain sometimes in a game it’s not there, they’re capable and today they showed it. Let’s see tomorrow.”

UP NEXT

Both teams are back in action on Sept. 18 away from home as Montreal will look to avenge a 5-0 rout against the New England Revolution while Charlotte visits Orlando City SC.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2024.

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