Universities across BC are being legally mandated by the province to take a ‘balanced approach’ to international education — and UBC is no exception.
Every year, each public BC university gets a list of instructions from the ministry of advanced education, skills and training telling them what they should — or should not — be doing as publicly funded institutions.
The government requests this year span from Indigenous integration to mental health services.
But one of the most notable parts of the letter is an instruction to “take a balanced approach to international education.”
“... in order to support government’s key commitments, I ask that University of British Columbia .... work closely with my Ministry to develop a balanced approach to international education,” wrote Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Training Melanie Mark.
The measures the ministry has requested this year are somewhat vague in contrast to previous years. In all of the previous mandates up to the 2014/15 school year, there have been more quantifiable objectives, being told to “meet or exceed financial targets” and to “deliver on provincial priorities for international education”.
As the school with the largest population of international students in the province, UBC's “balanced approach” will affect thousands of people.
The university’s international student population has grown substantially over the past few years, from under 10,000 in 2012 to over 16,000 as of the last school year.
A ministry spokesperson said that even though the government currently has no annual tuition increase cap for international students, they are still “focused on maintaining British Columbia as one of the leading destinations for international students.”
But some student organizations have pointed out that’s unrealistic unless tuition stops rising.
The BC Federation of Students— which represents over 100,000 students in the province, but not UBC Vancouver’s AMS—has been pushing for a tuition cap on international students, noting that it would create “predictability and consistency and stability” for them and maintain the province as an “attractive destination.”
BC Federation of Students Chair Aran Armutlu also added that international students currently contribute heavily to the BC economy. The federation is worried that if international tuition rates continue to the shared goal of maintaining the province as an attractive destination for international students would likely be challenging.
“In 2015 alone international students in British Columbia added over 3 billion dollars in spending, and that spending created 26,000 jobs that contributed over 1.7 billion dollars to the provincial GDP.” wrote Armutlu in a statement.
Pam Ratner, vice-provost and associate VP of enrolment and academic facilities, said that the steadily increasing rate of incoming international students “is expected to remain stable over the next several years" and that efforts are being made to give the “best experience possible” to all students.
Some include “an array of bursaries up to full need,” “short-term loans for international students encountering an unexpected and significant crisis” and an increased commitment to the WorkLearn program.
Tuition decreases, however, are not necessarily part of that.
“All B.C. public post-secondary institutions were asked to comply with government’s two percent cap on tuition and mandatory fee increases. This policy does not apply to international students,” wrote a spokesperson from the ministry of advanced education and skills training.
The AMS did not respond to a comment request by press time.
Correction, October 22 2:17 p.m.: An earlier version of this article misquoted the letter as specifying "tuition" instead of "education." The Ubyssey regrets this error.
Correction, October 23 8:37 a.m.: This article has been updated to reflect the number of international students at UBC is just over 16,000, not 20,000.
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