From ‘Karan’ to ‘Karen’

Why are International Students just treated as a revenue stream to enrich Domestic Student experiences?

Recent reporting on spikes in international student overdoses and the lack of race-based tracking by the provincial governments is not a surprise for the many grass-roots organizations that have assisted international students for years across Canada. In the recent debates, however, we are missing one significant question. Why haven’t the educational institutions that have made millions in profit from the aggressive recruitment of international students provided any significant support to these same students once here? Why has this burden seemingly been shifted to non-profits? Why are these students merely viewed as a revenue stream?

In 2021 One Voice Canada, founded in 2019 to assist vulnerable international students, published an evidence-based report on the challenges facing international students. It described in detail the exploitation of international students within Canada. The report was partially based on an international student survey conducted in 2020, just before the pandemic, and raised a number of issues, including the poor mental health of international students. Many of the findings and concerns increased in magnitude as the pandemic and lockdowns set in.

Often, when colleges and universities discuss international students, it is mostly in relation to revenue generation, not their student life experience. Read their annual reports, and it becomes abundantly clear that the significant funds coming in from ‘Karan’ are usually diverted to ‘Karen.’ These institutions need this revenue stream for their very survival. What is missing in these annual reports is significant attention given to the support of international students.

Take, for example, my local university.

In 2019, the University of Victoria (UVic) approved a 20% increase in fees for an incoming international undergraduate student, while domestic tuition fees rose by a much smaller amount. This was the first time fee increases for domestic and international students were decoupled. Protests ensued as to what was clearly a cash grab from international students. Today, using their online calculator, tuition fees and student costs for a domestic undergraduate student wanting to study business for two terms is $7,780. The same course is $31,495 for an international student, over four times the cost. As of 2020/21, 18% of UVic’s student population, i.e. its international student body, provides 42% of all tuition revenue. Yet, outside of newly arrived orientation, there is little evidence of long-term care and support provided to them by the university.

These financial statistics are not unusual. You will find that most educational institutions have a significant portion of their tuition revenue come from international students and use little of that to provide meaningful support for these same students.

To understand the importance of international student revenue, note that in 2019, universities and colleges in BC alone posted a surplus of $340M, coming primarily from international student fees. A surplus!

Another example of how international students are a revenue stream for services they’re unlikely to enjoy is understanding the relationship between some public and private colleges.

Look at, for instance, St Lawrence College, a public college in Ontario. Along with three campuses, it also has two private college partners. One of these, Alpha College, was in the news recently due to student protests over enrolment issues. The ensuing bad publicity impacted St Lawrence College too, and it had to scramble to make statements about helping the aggrieved students.

Revenue from tuition fees at St Lawrence rose from $32.6M in 2015 to a peak of $70.1M in 2020. For the 2020–21 year, 3321 of the 9406 students enrolled were from the two private colleges. International tuition revenue for that period accounted for about 60% of total tuition, with 39% of this coming from the private colleges. Yet, when you look at the student life experience of their private college students, it is far removed from that within the three campuses.

During the announcement in 2021 of a five-year increase in the term of St Lawrence College’s CEO, he was lauded for the $42M Student Life and Innovation Center built at their Kingston campus and for bringing the college out of the red to its strongest financial position in its 53-year history. Undeniably, much of this success came from international student tuition fees collected by the private colleges. The revenue generated from the fees of these off-campus international students studying in poorly facilitated colleges went to those on-campus, experiencing a much richer student life experience.

Ironically, when discussing international students, the only statement concerning revenue spent at St Lawrence was converting three admissions officers to full-time status to increase focus on international enrolment. To add further irony to this, in the same report, they discuss the hire of a full-time senior advisor to lead their Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion initiatives, but only at their three campuses. No mention of those students off-campus within the private colleges.

Funds were also increased for recruiting international students more effectively, using new technologies.

While these universities and colleges are using international student tuition revenue for their general operating costs and infrastructure improvement, there seems to be little appetite to use a portion of these funds to ensure their international student body has a better student life experience and is not left vulnerable to exploitation through a lack of support, as is happening now. The loneliness felt by many of these students, with families thousands of miles away, and the feeling of no social support network opens them up to exploitation.

Imagine if just 1% of that $340M surplus the institutions in BC enjoyed in 2019 had been diverted to supporting international students. $3.4M could have hired many to support students with orientation, mental health issues, academic support, identifying and reporting exploitation, etc. Essentially, to succeed.

Just imagine.