A Canadian province, British Columbia, has announced a ban on new post-secondary institutions from applying to enrol international students for the next two years.
Selina Robinson, Post-Secondary Education Minister, said on Monday that the move became necessary to correct the international educational system, which has not been working well.
She said after the province started paying close attention to the system last March, it found poor quality education and in some cases, lack of instructors in private institutions charging exorbitant tuition.
Robinson added some of such schools had even stopped international students from lodging complaints. She said an Indian student had told her how she paid for education in one of the schools but was put in an online program after her arrival in Canada. She added that the student said she was disappointed after her family struggled to put together her tuition.
She said the two-year pause gives the province some time to assess the impact of recent changes, such as the federal government’s capping of study permits it approves over the next two years.
She also announced the province was setting minimum language requirements at private institutions so international students will be “better prepared” before arrive BC.
More details on the language requirement will be released in March, Robinson said, as work is still being done on that front.
Of the 175,000 international post-secondary students from more than 150 countries in B.C., about 54 per cent are enrolled in private institutions.
There are 280 of those private schools in the province, and 80 per cent of them are in the Lower Mainland.
