The College of New Caledonia Students' Union and the Northern BC Graduate Students’ Society at UNBC have joined an open letter to Premier David Eby and the provincial government, calling for five actions to address the "exploitation of international students" and issues with the current funding of post-secondary institutions, which they say is has been underfunded for decades.
"A world-class public post-secondary education system should not involve the exploitation of international students nor constantly assess the need to cut services to balance an institutional budget. With consistent, stable, and predictable funding for BC’s public post-secondary institutions, the financial predation on students, both international and domestic, will no longer be seen as necessary for an institution’s survival," states the open letter, authored by the British Columbia Federation of Students.
"If we continue to treat public post-secondary as a business, institutions will continue to feel pressure to make decisions based on the finances needed to maintain their operations," they add.
International students already pay four to five times more than their domestic peers in British Columbia, explains the letter.
The letter comes after the federal government’s announcement of a two-year cap on international study permits, presenting a problem for many post-secondary institutions who heavily rely on the tuition fees paid by international students as part of their operating revenue.
"We are currently at a critical crossroads. Our dependency on international fees and lack of funding for post-secondary education has led us to a point where band-aid solutions are no longer enough. We need to fund our post-secondary system and shield current and future students from the consequences of systemic under funding," notes the letter.
Five solutions have been put forward by the federation:
- Capping international student tuition fee increases at two percent annually, which they say will protect international students from being used as a tool to balance institutional budgets and address the over-reliance on those fees as a source of institutional revenue.
- Release a plan on how international study permits will be distributed to institutions in BC, which they say will provide transparency for students and will consider the impacts on institutions and their communities.
- Complete the Post-Secondary Funding Formula Review and determine gaps in government funding, in particular for regional colleges and universities. A sector-wide review was already completed in 2022, and the majority of BC’s public institutions, students’ unions, faculty and staff unions and the Federation, participated to help the government look at creating a new model.
- Develop a funding model that provides long-term financial stability for institutions, delivers quality education and services for students, and does not rely on student tuition fees as the main source of funding.
- Invest in BC’s public post-secondary institutions to ensure post-secondary education is affordable and accessible and that the province is able to produce the skilled workers needed in the labour force. The letter says this will make up for anticipated losses in institutional revenue from the permit cap and meet labour needs for health care, early childcare education and skilled trades.
