Picture a typical international post-secondary student enrolled at a B.C. institution. There are 鈥� or were 鈥� more than 150,000 of them, and their lives have been uprooted even more than most people鈥檚 due to COVID-19.
Thousands of them fled for home as the crisis worsened and are now in limbo, waiting to see how subsequent terms shape up.
Many carried on studies through the online processes that were slammed into place in response to the pandemic.
But as student leaders made clear to the legislature finance committee at a meeting last week, it鈥檚 not the same.
They acknowledged the huge effort institutions made to adapt, but as Grace Dupasquier of the Alliance of B.C. Students said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 been bumpy.
鈥淭hey [faculty and staff] have been working ridiculous hours to try and roll things out in a way that will make things easy. 鈥�
鈥淭hey understand that when we are in a remote learning situation, many students feel that they aren鈥檛 receiving the same value for their tuition. 鈥�
鈥淯niversities are doing their best to try to mitigate that. However, it is still coming up short.鈥�
Major efforts have been made to reach out to the international students.
But online lectures are tougher for English as a second language students, Dupasquier said. All the visual cues in face-to-face talks are gone, and it takes a bit longer to comprehend meanings.
Samad Raza of the SFU Student Society said attending B.C. lectures online from home can also mean huge time changes, so some are listening in the middle of the night.
Raza said a big part of studying abroad is experiencing the culture of Canada and that鈥檚 missing now as well.
鈥淟et鈥檚 say a student is in their home country accessing classes 鈥� not the same 鈥� but paying, like, $3,000 for one class. It鈥檚 not really fair for them to do it online on the computer. Instead, they are in their home country. The whole experience of going abroad and getting a degree from abroad is going abroad itself.鈥�
The two and several others advocated some changes to the tuition model, under which international students pay a big premium compared to domestic students. They鈥檝e become a lucrative revenue source over the years.
Sean Derochers, of the 91原创 Island University Students Union, said international students make up 20聽per cent of the VIU student body, but about half the institution鈥檚 tuition revenue comes from them.
Fees vary widely across B.C. because there鈥檚 no provincial standard. Tuition hikes of between nine and 20 per cent have been imposed or are slated, while tuition hikes for domestic students are limited.
鈥淐OVID-19 pandemic highlights the vulnerability of our institutions in regard to depending on international tuition fees to make up for funding shortfalls,鈥� said Desrochers.
Extending the two per cent limit on tuition hikes to international students was recommended by several.
Chris Ayles, of Camosun College Faculty Association, said Camosun is facing a loss of tuition revenue which is forcing consideration of cuts and staff reductions.
鈥淣obody knows what winter is going to bring, but I聽wouldn鈥檛 put money on it being normal.鈥�
Chris Jaeger of the VIU Faculty Association told MLAs: 鈥淥ur international students need to feel that they鈥檙e on an equal footing with 91原创 classmates.鈥�
Depasquier said it鈥檚 widely recognized that international students are not citizens and have to pay more. But if they had the tuition predictability domestic students enjoy, 鈥渢hat really gives the element of fairness, the element of assurance and just makes things easier for everybody.鈥�
Some also urged MLAs to allow institutions to run deficits in response to the crisis. Surveying reserve funds at the various institutions for emergency use was also pitched as an idea.
The committee is starting work on hearing views about聽what next year鈥檚 budget should look like, even while聽the current year鈥檚 plan gets distorted beyond recognition.
If the impression that the B.C. post-secondary experience at present isn鈥檛 worth the premium price gains ground internationally, there鈥檚 going to be a gaping hole where hundreds of millions of dollars鈥� worth of tuition revenue used to be.
