College strike creates extra problems for international students
Disruption can affect their job prospects, travel plans and ability to stay in country
With only a few weeks remaining in her computer-science studies, Algonquin College student Abby Sun was excited to have landed her first full-time job.
Now the job, diploma and even her ability to stay in Canada are up in the air.
The strike by faculty at Ontario colleges, now dragging through its fourth week, presents extra complications for international students such as Sun, who is from China.
She expected to finish her last exam in mid-December, head home for a Christmas visit to see her family and start her new job as a software developer at the beginning of January.
But the Algonquin academic year will be reconfigured to allow students to catch up after missing weeks of classes. It’s not clear how that will be done because it’s unknown how long the strike will last, but the college has warned the fall term may be extended.
“I’m not even sure if I can keep my job in January because I’m not sure if I’ll graduate by then,” said Sun, 20.
“The timing is really cruel,” she added. “Opportunities, they come and they pass. If you don’t grab onto them, they’ll be gone forever.”
Other dominoes start to topple, too. Sun said she can’t apply for a work visa until she has her diploma in hand.
Sun said she doesn’t fully understand the issues that led 12,000 faculty at colleges across the province to walk off the job on Oct. 16.
“I understand that it’s for a good cause,” she said politely. “But I don’t think it’s fair and just for students to have to suffer all the consequences.
“I wish they would find a way of reaching an agreement instead of using us as pawns.”
It’s not clear when that might happen. Striking faculty will decide on a contract offer from the colleges in a vote, Nov. 14 to 16, that is being organized by the Ontario Labour Relations Board — unless a deal is reached at the bargaining table before then. That’s the upshot of heated statements released Tuesday by both sides. College management asked for the vote after negotiations broke down Monday. By Tuesday both union and management were saying they were willing to bargain.
Colleges have insisted no student has lost a semester because of a strike. But students are increasingly anxious. About 127,000 people have signed an online petition demanding students receive a tuition refund for every day of cancelled classes.
International students pay handsomely for the privilege of studying at an Ontario college. Their tuition can be double, triple or more than the fees Canadian students pay.
At Algonquin, for instance, international students in post-secondary degree programs are charged a premium of $4,825 each term on top of regular tuition, which for standard-fee programs is around $1,500 to $1,800, but can be higher for some programs.
International students have become an important source of revenue for colleges. Algonquin works hard to attract students from around the world. It has 2,178 international students enrolled, up 39 per cent from a year earlier, according to the college. The college has 16,208 domestic students in full-time post-secondary and graduate certificate programs.
Some worry the strike may make it harder to recruit international students.
Instructor Colleen MayoPankhurst said about half the students in the communications courses she teaches in the school of hospitality and tourism are international.
“Their friends back home are saying: ‘Should we come to your colleges next year?’”
Mayo-Pankhurst, a “partialload” instructor who is now walking the picket line, said she discussed the possible work disruption with her students before the strike began. Some international students come from repressive regimes, where protests of any sort are dangerous.
“One young man said, ‘If we did what you are proposing to do in my country, we’d be shot.’ It brought me up short. I’m just very grateful we live in this country.”
Mayo-Pankhurst said she sent an email to her students reassuring them if there was a work disruption, neither students nor professors need fear for their safety.
The strike is also likely to disrupt Christmas travel plans for many students, and those from abroad will be hit hard.
Sun said missing Christmas with her family would be distressing. She hasn’t seen them in two-anda-half years.
Algonquin has said it will consider requests from students who already booked travel when the strike began. But even if she gets a refund for her $1,200 plane ticket, Sun said it won’t compensate for the lost family time.
“It’s really tough on me and my family. They miss me a lot. It’s very tough on my mom. I’m an only child.”
Algonquin student Vladilena Kipriyanova, 21, booked a $1,700 non-refundable plane ticket home to Russia for the December break. She’ll probably get on the plane even if the school term is extended, she said.
“I have five siblings. My whole family is back in Russia. And it’s Christmas.”
Kipriyanova said she won’t get the chance to go home for a while if she doesn’t go now. She plans to do a work placement next summer, a requirement to finish her degree in interior design. Kipriyanova said she pays about $9,000 a semester to study at Algonquin.
Like her classmates, Kipriyanova is stressed. She wonders how they can make up the course work.
If the work is compressed, with fewer or smaller projects, students won’t end up with as strong a portfolio of their design work, she said. She’s in her third year of a fouryear degree.
The number of international students at Ontario colleges has increased dramatically, according to a study by the Canadian Bureau for International Education.
Almost half of all international students in Ontario study at Toronto colleges, the study found. In Toronto, the number of international students as a proportion of all college students shot from 10.4 per cent in 2009 to 20.7 per cent in 2015. But colleges across the province have seen an increase. In eastern Ontario, the proportion of international students rose from 2.3 per cent to 7.7 per cent of the student population in that time period.
Colleges are relying on international students because domestic enrolment is stagnant or declining; funding is decreasing; the province has encouraged the trend; and international students provide revenue, the report found.
The study found international students tend to be older, are more likely to be male, less likely to work at a paid job and have fewer dependents than domestic students.