Conestoga College plans more housing for foreign students
Conestoga College keeps on adding classrooms, equipment and beds after outpacing every post-secondary Canadian school in recruiting lucrative foreign students who pay much higher tuition.
In the last 10 months the Kitchener-based community college says it has acquired eight properties to increase housing for students. This includes the former Inn of Waterloo on King Street North, near the Highway 85 expressway.
The vacant inn, damaged by fire when it was used as a temporary shelter for people without homes, will be leased to the college for three years while property owner Drewlo Holdings advances its proposal to replace it with eight residential towers.
“Repairs will be completed before students move in,” said Jerry Drennan, Drewlo’s chief operating officer.
He said the firm expects it will need three years to get plans and permits in place before it can demolish the inn and launch construction on redevelopment.
“I believe it’s a good step forward to ease housing pressures felt in the city and region, and we’re happy to see Conestoga College taking action on student housing,” Waterloo Mayor Dorothy McCabe said.
“Specifically for the Inn of Waterloo, it’s been an iconic building in our community for many years and this is a good interim use of the space.”
Conestoga has also purchased properties to house students on Albert and Hazel streets in Waterloo.
“It is essential that we provide modern and accessible housing options for our students,” college vicepresident Trish Weigel Green said in announcing the latest acquisitions.
Conestoga has faced criticism for not providing more housing after more than 51,000 foreign students
were granted permission to attend in the last two years. Their tuition, at two to four times what domestic students pay, helped the college swell its operating surplus to $106 million in 2022-23.
Conestoga would not provide details on how fast its footprint is growing. However, the college’s financial statements show the value of its land, buildings and equipment almost doubled between 2018 and 2023 to reach almost $400 million.
The school’s annual payroll almost doubled over the same period, exceeding $280 million by 2023 after the college added instructors and staff. Over this period the college also hiked its spending on professional fees, with spending reaching $66 million in the last fiscal year.
Immigration records provided to The Record show Conestoga has no rival in its international expansion. It holds the nation’s top spot with more than 51,000 international student visas approved over 2022 and 2023.
This is more than double the number of international students approved for the No. 2 school, a private Vancouver business institution called University Canada West. It had more than 23,400 study permits approved over two years.
“We are an exemplar in this field. We are not a bad actor,” college president John Tibbits said last fall in promoting international recruitment as the best path forward for a school that had stopped growing.
Labour unions at the college say the pace of expansion has exhausted faculty and staff and may be putting academic quality at risk.
“I think our workforce is tired, and we need time to build, ” Vikki Poirier, president of OPSEU Local 238, said in a recent interview. “We can’t continue to do the work we are doing at this capacity.” The unit represents support workers at the college.
Expansion has put a national spotlight on Conestoga as the federal government makes plans to roll back visas for foreign students this year and next, concerned in part that host communities can’t provide enough services or housing.
The rollback is meant to “protect a system that has become so lucrative that it has opened a path for its abuse. Enough is enough,” Immigration Minister Marc Miller said in January in announcing the rollback. Conestoga received approval for more than 30,000 international students in 2023, after approval for more than 20,000 students in 2022 and 10,000 students in 2021. Governments have not revealed how many permits the college will receive in 2024.
However, the college could still lead the nation in international recruitment if its student visas are slashed by half.
Together, the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University received immigration approval for just over 4,200 international students over 2022 and 2023. This is eight per cent of visa approvals for Conestoga.
Students from India account for just over 80 per cent of all foreign students approved at three postsecondary schools in Waterloo Region over 2022 and 2023. Nigeria, China, and Ghana follow, but with far smaller numbers.