EDITORIAL – Capping international student numbers a bad move
(Image: Mel Rothenburger.)
An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
IT SHOULD BE no surprise that the federal government’s limits on international-student enrolment is creating a cash crisis for universities, including Thompson Rivers University.
Last January, the feds announced a 35 per cent decrease in the number of study permits allowed. That has resulted in about 400 fewer international students on campus this fall. The total had edged above 4,000, almost half TRU’s enrollment.
The cost of the cutbacks in international student numbers amounts to millions of dollars to TRU, multiplied many times when applied to post-secondary institutions across the country. The reason is that students who come from other countries pay tuition fees that are several times what domestic students pay. In effect, they subsidize the education of local students.
It’s only fair, since the parents of international students haven’t paid taxes into the education system here the way those of at-home students have. So the presence of international students on campus and in the community is a big deal for several reasons, not just the cultural richness they bring with them.
The conversation about cutting back on their numbers began with the housing crisis. Theoretically, fewer international students should mean more housing opportunities for Canadian students. Whether that proves out remains to be seen but, overall, the impact on the economy of universities is a huge negative.
TRU is now having to look at possible cutbacks to staffing, travel expenses and even sports programs while looking for general efficiencies. No panic button yet, but it sounds like there will be a broad look at cost centres.
Here’s a quick win if only TRU and the City would see it — put the brakes on the $10-million pedestrian-cyclist overpass planned to span Summit Drive between College Heights and the campus.
The squeeze caused by the capping of international student numbers will be felt for years. Every penny that can be saved will be worth looking at.
Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Webster Foundation Commentator of the Year finalist. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Losers in all this will include fast food joints, the hotel industry and several other minimum wage jobs industries as they’ve used international students as indentured servants for years, who are going replace these needed workers? Will we see a culling of these substandard nutrition emporiums, maybe wages will rise to compete for precocious workers, whatever the case, a ripple effect will have wider ramifications than just making more housing available.
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Putting the breaks on silly, pointless expenditures at TRU can come quick enough cue the recent landscaping work on the large roundabout on the west side of the campus.
But also about breaks on silly expenditures is also something the City of Kamloops should be doing cue the subscription to 10% municipal tax increases for years to come.
Lastly, it can be argued the “cultural richness” is mostly a myth.
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This cap needs to be thoroughly examined by Canadian citizens. It makes very little sense.
It’s also somewhat misleading to suggest an international student somehow pays in tuition an equivalent amount to what a domestic student’s parents would pay in taxes to subsidize upper level education. An international student pays much more in tuition for just 1 year of school than what an average Canadians tax contribution to upper education would be in a lifetime.
Canadians are going to have to grow up quickly when it comes to election issues now. We can no longer have it all, the margins of the world and the debt load are too high. In this case, it is likely either affordable housing or post secondary subsidized by foreign students (who also often pay taxes by the way, through employment and purchases while they live here not to mention the entire shady immigration processes at both ends).
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