At Risk: BC's Vital Foreign Student Industry
They spend $500 million a year here. Will they still?
Threats: strong dollar, loose standards.
Most of us don't realize it, but one of B.C.'s most important exports is knowledge.
We don't load it onto freighters or trucks. We load it into the heads of about 28,000 foreign students every year, who then take it back home to China or Korea or the U.S. Doing so is making us a fortune.
Our export industries are alarmed by the rise of the Canadian dollar. God knows what's going to happen to the Vancouver film business, now that its members have to be paid in loonies costing more than U.S. greenbacks. American tourists, already discouraged by the need for a passport if they want to get back into the U.S., are likely to stay south of the border.
And what if we discourage those thousands of Asian, European, Latin American, and U.S. students who want to study here? Will that have an economic impact? It could, but we may have worse problems thanks to Ottawa.
Half billion dollars from international students
Surprisingly, StatsCan hasn't examined international students since 1996, but a 2006 study by Roslyn Kunin and Associates found that in B.C. we're doing very well out of them.
Kunin reported that international post-secondary students generate a lot of local jobs and pump astonishing amounts of money into the local economy. Direct spending by such students totaled a little over half a billion dollars. They created 6,000 jobs directly, and another 3,100 indirectly. Almost 5,000 of those jobs were in the government sector.
In the Metro Vancouver region, Kunin found that international students at just two schools -- Simon Fraser and Vancouver Community College -- generated almost $90 million in spending, creating 1,600 jobs in the process.
Canadian courses at a premium
As a Capilano College teacher, I know how much of my own bread is buttered by foreign students. They now make up 10 per cent of Cap's student population. Walk across my campus and you'll hear them yakking on their cell phones in Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Farsi, Spanish -- and English. It's music to my ears.
They pay a huge premium to take our courses. A Canadian resident pays $312 for each 3-credit course at Cap College, or $3,120 for a year of full-time education. The international student in the next seat is paying $1,150 per course, or $11,550 for a year of university-transfer or career-program education -- almost three times what the resident pays.
In theory, these big fees cover the full cost of the foreign students' tuition, while the residents are heavily subsidized. In practice, foreign students are paying enough extra to subsidize their classmates and teachers. Many Canadian students would not be able to take a particular course, or enroll in a particular section, without the extra money that international students have provided to their schools' overall budget.
Recruiting K-12 students
Many school districts also recruit international students. This year, about 980 pupils are paying $12,000 each for a year's education in the Vancouver schools. Victoria pays Vancouver about $7,932 for each resident pupil, so the internationals are more than paying for themselves.
As you might expect, everyone is competing for overseas students. Education fairs are big business in Asia and Europe, where agents earn a percentage of the first-year tuition fee of each student recruited.
The international-student administrator in another Lower Mainland district wrote to me from Istanbul: "Turkey is a new market for our school district, and the presence of the Superintendent helps parents to understand the level of importance our school district places on the international student program. Just prior to Turkey, we attended an international education fair in Berlin to meet European recruiting agents and prospective students."
The administrator went on to say B.C. school districts have two strong assets: "The fact that Canada is currently ranked #2, with only Finland ranking higher, on Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in the areas of reading, mathematics and science, while the U.S. is ranked much lower. "Secondly, the fact that Vancouver has been named the best, most livable city in the world based on quality of life, safety, health, recreation, and natural environment."
Can they afford us now?
Now a problem is looming for our education exporters. B.C. enjoys a good reputation, especially in Asia: Our schools are among the best in the world. Our cities are reasonably safe and clean. Our multiculturalism makes us both exotic and comfortable. But we've lost the big advantage of a weak dollar.
Comparison shopping could make us look less attractive to some foreign students. A year's tuition in arts or engineering at UBC, for example, costs $22,438. Converting that amount into US dollars (currently worth 94 cents) would produce $23,798. At the University of Washington's Seattle campus, tuition would cost only $22,131, leaving a foreign student with an extra $1,667.
At the community-college level, Canadian schools are still a bargain. A year's tuition at Cap College ($11,550) would convert to $12,250 U.S. -- but that year at North Seattle Community College would cost $14,903 in Canadian dollars -- obliging the foreign student to spend an extra $2,653.
Gary Henkelmann is the manager of Cap College's International Student Centre. When I emailed him to ask about these issues, he replied from Southeast Asia, where he was busy recruiting more students.
"I was afraid of how students and parents would approach me about it," he wrote, "but it has not been all that negative. They are used to the rise and fall of various currencies including their own, so the attitude, a little bit, is who knows what it will be like by the time my child has to pay tuition in 8-12 months, or even down the road assuming 4-5 years of costs.
"When one is paying $50,000 or more for overseas education, does a few thousand dollars mean much? In general, these are well-off people. Quality of programming is still very important. Most surprising of all is that the high Canadian dollar signifies a strong, robust country and economy so 'Canada must be a good place that is getting better.'"
Gordon McNeil, director of international education at Langara College, agrees. Just back from Japan and China, he says no one raised the issue of the rising dollar. "Canada is still perceived as a safe, secure and tolerant place for international students. My sense is that parents are willing to pay a premium for that benefit."
But he warns that "Lack of control of the private education sector has also given us headaches. The overseas media feed on the irresponsible and bogus private schools that have been set up in Canada and aggressively promoted overseas."
No national education strategy
The real problem, from Henkelmann's point of view, is that "Canada appears to people here as a disjointed country with no national educational strategy, where each province and school competes against the next, where there is little cooperation between CIC (immigration) and the education industry, and this 'disorganization' turns people to Australia, the U.K. and even the U.S.A."
McNeil is blunter: "We are likely our own worst enemy. The federal government has a hard time herding the 'provincial cats' into the same house. Provincial promotion is often anti-productive as national governments overseas struggle to deal with our juggernaut of educational systems and options."
Such views finds strong support from Globe and Mail columnist Marcus Gee, who recently reported from Ho Chi Minh City on how other countries are outdoing us in attracting foreign students.
Despite all our advantages, Gee observes, the Australians are beating us up. They put real resources into promoting their country as an education destination. So they get almost 10 per cent of all international students, while we get three per cent. Australia's growth in foreign-student enrolment between 1998 and 2004 was 169 per cent; ours was 14.8 per cent.
Maybe we can blame our constitution, which makes education a provincial responsibility. But Ottawa pays a big chunk of our post-secondary spending. The feds ought to understand that most Asian economies run on guanxi, personal relationships, that often form in school.
A Vietnamese or Chinese or Mexican alumnus of UBC or SFU is likely to be a senior manager of a company or government agency in just a few years. That manager's Canadian connections could result in contracts that would otherwise enrich the U.S. or Britain (or Australia).
From students to immigrants
What's more, the students we attract could become critically valuable immigrants. The Canadian Bureau for International Education, in a recent news release, reported that only a third of our international students plan to stay here to live and work. The rest see more opportunity back home or in the U.S.
Meanwhile, says the CBIE, the UK, Australia and New Zealand are working hard to keep the brain drain working in their favour. In New Zealand, a foreign grad can spend a year looking for work. Here, the grad has to find a job in 90 days, or go home.
In 1984 I returned from a teaching stint in China with a very strong sense of what Canada could achieve by promoting international education. Since then I've rejoiced in the foreign students who have transformed my small suburban college into a truly world-class, world-influential institution.
But after a quarter of a century we Canadians have still not seized the opportunity to become the world's best educators, the place where the smartest kids on the planet dream of going to school ... and then staying for the rest of their lives.
Related Tyee stories:
- Click-and-Drag Education
Dropping enrolment fuels BC Libs' push for online learning. - The Student Loan Crush
How it got so heavy, and how to lighten it. - How BC Libs Aim to Reinvent Higher Ed
'Campus 2020' report promises upheaval without progress.
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Umslopogaas
14-11-2007
Cash Cow.
Maybe we should actually just service our own sons and daughters with our educational tax dollars.
We should dismantle the expensive bureaucracy that administers these "rich foreigners" programs in high schools.
As far as I see it, this just creates high priced jobs for administrators and otherwise downloads even more work on the classroom teacher.
Van Isle
14-11-2007
There is nothing in this
There is nothing in this article about half the post secondary instituions in this province who have closed their doors or their licence is under suspension because they're run by scam-artists who pray on naive foreign students and their families. The word is out in the asian countries "of buyer beware" and that they won't get any support from our Provincal Government, who grants these institutions there licence to operate, if those students are ripped-off. What a legacy.
Fogotwillingate
14-11-2007
You Want to Replace Conventional Journalism?
You have long stated that blog news is an alternative to conventional media sources, and will not be inhibited by their elite centrist editing. Really? Do ALL Tyee' staffers have job applications at big-media?
If you want to serve as an alternative, then post on: the Mulroney scandal (part 56), the Frank Paul inquiry, cop tazer atrocities, etc. Big media does a pitiful job on abuse of office allegations, but they do put them on the front page. Stop playing Trivial Pursuit, and start informing the public. Opinion 250 does locally what you do provincially. And they get an A; you get a C-
zalm
15-11-2007
I'm a little confused
I thought the BC government was pushing tuition fees up to cover 14% of costs from the less-than-10% that it sagged to under the NDP. Mind you, I don't agree with this, but it's what the five-martini marionette said he would try to do.
So unless this figure is wrong, that means the true cost of educating that student at Cap College is $3120/14% or $22,285 a year for a full-time course load, not $11,550. And the true cost of educating that same student at UBC is twice as high.
Even high schools are not immune - the marginal cost of extra teachers is swallowed up in the tuition charged to foreign students, but what of the fixed costs? School business agents have been chasing this one for years, trying to make smaller shools more productive with foreign students, and that has proved a successful strategy in a time of declining enrollment, especially in Vancouver proper, but when you factor the cost of the ministry of Education divided into the number of pupils, I bet foreign students are getting a big subsidy here too.
So, Mr. Kilian, please show me the facts on guanxi. That's the only way I see we can win out of this. As a rule, foreign students (and I've known dozens personally) get a lot more out of their education in Canada than they put into society here.
The money they leave behind is no great shakes (bed-board homestays average $453 per month, according to my friend, a coordinator for overseas language-school homestay students). It's not a sum to get rich on, yet one that could provide for some of our less-troublesome homeless, if we cared to have a group advocating on their behalf.
Their social discourse is minimal to non-existent at best - rare is the one who sticks his or her head up to offer an opinion, never mind challenge Canadians to find a better way of doing something.
They are not volunteers, unless they're on the fast-track to gain landed immigrant status.
Yet in chasing foreign-student dollars, we abandon many Canadian-born students who have less than the 80 - 94% average required to get into UBC/SFU/UVic programs, people who have the roots, the capability and the ties to actually take on and change society after graduation.
This, I say, is the true loss, not some bogus relationship that might occur in some import-export field a long time after graduation. Guanxi is only important in introductions - after that, it's all in the methods and costs of business. And, as is often said in Hong-Kong, the dollar is the best guanxi.
Fiat lux
15-11-2007
This is a typical example of
This is a typical example of the vulnerability of industries and whole economies built on exports.
The so called "rise" of the Canadian dollar, or any fluctuations of the money markets have nothing to do with realities, but games played , for the purpose of exploitation, by major gamblers and speculators, stripping the Earth and stealing the benefits.
Fiat money is not a reality, but an imaginary concept under the control of a self interest sector.
What economists would never talk about and people don't realize is that the changes in monetary values are used to alter the dimensions of trade goods. This applies for export items, but also domestically. When prices rise, people can afford less and shorter dimensions, which is the same as shortchanging.
The only solutions from this cruel and criminal mess are monetary systems based on fixed values, the same way as the numbers on tape measures and scales, and economies developed for local self reliance and selfsufficiences, as much as possible, controlled locally to escape the vagaries of foreign markets controlled by a multinational mafia.
This means, reducing of the reliance on exports and imports, tourism and foreign investment, which is a fraud to begin with.
These students, or tourists, bring nothing to our economy, their fees, and all foreign investment only inflate our money supply, which can be accomplished legally, as necessary, with controlled, national money
creation, which is going on now and used to take over legitimate economic activities and divert the benefits into the pockets of a self appointed ruling class.
With the oil industry facing increased crises and shortages, plus the damage caused it and by the unnecessary transport of goods, and unnecessary travel, how long can the promoters of this false economy hope to carry on with this form of drug induced euphoria, destroying the Earth and leading humanity into self destruction ?
How long can unnecessary air travel go on using and wasting incredible amounts of fuel and poisoning the Earth and humanity with its pollution?
Ed Deak, Big Lake.
James Burns
15-11-2007
Value
"These students, or tourists, bring nothing to our economy..."
Not true Ed, their fees may be of little real use long term (although I'm not sure I entirely agree with that either), but the relationships created when they study here are a different story. The cultural exchange and future cooperation are invaluable, even if by only a small percentage of them.
Travel, particularly air travel, does create problems. And it is far too often a preserve of the well off, who tend to stick to well beaten tourist paths, whether they are student backpackers or all inclusive resort goers. Real cultural exchange over a much longer period of time would be of far more value both for individuals and for populations in general.
Fiat lux
15-11-2007
James, I wrote "economy",
James, I wrote "economy", not human relationships and benefits.
Inflating a country's money supply from abroad is not a benefit, but a liability.
The problem is when sectors become totally reliant on such movements of imaginary monies and endanger the existence of the whole economy, because the slightest problem can cause great damage.
There's far too much traveling and movement of goods going on without any logical reasons and the resulting independence, waste of resources and pollution endanger the survival of the Earth.
The last time I was on a plane was in 1968 and haven't missed a thing since.
Ed Deak.
rangergord
15-11-2007
Foreign Student Industry
The rise and fall of the dollar is a double edged sword. It has consequences when it moves either direction. Ed Deak is right. Governments should take back the right to create money on behalf of the people from the central bankers. The value of the dollar should be fixed. We would all be better off. That said education costs are simply too high. Any industry that wants to survive the high dollar must cut costs at all cost if they want to survive. Not that the educational conformists in this province are likely to want change. Between the government, schools, and teachers unions no changes will happen until there is no longer any choice in the matter.
Fii
15-11-2007
Homestays run about $750 a
Homestays run about $750 a month, at least in North Van. That includes meals. As far as I know, this is not taxed. I would love to get in on the homestay industry- some people out there are really raking in some big bucks, as they have as many as 4 homestay students.
Then there are the Korean families providing homestays for Korean children who come here in the summer, and take a "summer camp" program at one of the private schools. Most of these are truly very boring for the kids as they are simply money grabs and the poor kids are stuck in some classroom all day with crappy materials. Sorry, that isn't summer "camp". These same families are running side jobs as "agents" and finding private tutors for the kids.
Don't even get me started on "agents".
The rising dollar isn't going to phase them one bit. A FALLING dollar would. We're talking about people from Korea who lived through a recession that saw their won sliced to half its worth OVERNIGHT back in '97. They are probably more likely to come here with the rising dollar because it's an indicator of a robust economy.
As for this statement:
"the place where the smartest kids on the planet dream of going to school ... and then staying for the rest of their lives", that's a challenge enough for Canadian born children, with the burdens of student loans, high taxes, skyrocketing cost of living....
woody
15-11-2007
As far as I know, this is not taxed.
Fii----realisticman said, (As far as I know, this is not taxed.)
I should hope not, as your probably going to have to subside this amount by $500. per month. Haven't you folks bought groceries lately ,add to that, supply a room, bedding, washing, house keeping, heat, light, etc, and, you better have them declared on your insurance or your in duck soup, if some thing should ever happen to them in, or, at your residence.
Andrea from Bec...
15-11-2007
How about all the unpaid
How about all the unpaid labour provided by foreign students? Many language schools provide "work experience" programs where the students go to work for employers for free. Around the West End, there are many cafes, fast food joints and other places that rely on free labour. Still other places won't hire you if you have a visa, because they'd rather use free labour or pay $6 under the table.
Fiat lux
15-11-2007
Just because the aircraft
Just because the aircraft industry is expanding doesn't mean good economics, only that there'll be more wasteful aircrafts, wasteful travelingand wasted fuel and pollution killing humanity faster.
The drug and pot industries and prostitution are also expanding, so what ? Just because some money changes hand means nothing in real economic terms.
We can see the B52s practicing over our heads every day, sometimes a dozen, or more, to kill thousands with their bombs. Their maintenance and the fuel they waste is also part of the GDP, but who the hell needs the continuation of this fraud and madness ?
I calculated once that the fuel they waste during the time I can see them would run my tractors, truck and motorized equipment for 5 years. Imagine the waste by dozens flying for hours.
The same applies to airliners, just because some people want to be somewhere else for a while. Is the health and life of our grandchildren worth this traveling hysteria?
Is this economics?
Ed Deak.
Canis Latrans
15-11-2007
Gimme us a break...
C'mon, give us a goddamn break!
Political correctness and exploitive "bourgeois" sensibilities run amok, being used as a tool to steal the more privileged and educated intelligentsia away from the needs of their own developing third world countries. That's what is really going on here.
We have our own young "poor" folks in desperate need of education and such as apprenticeship programmes. Stop disguising theft, even people theft, as something noble and politically correct. A rose by any other name is still a rose. So is faeces.
Where's your head, Tyee? Where the sun never shines?
cboo44
15-11-2007
Foreign Students
I would suggest that Mr. Kilian do more research on BC universities' and foreign students, in particular, contact the President of Thompson Rivers University, in Kamloops, one of the most progressive universities in Canada.
The fact is that resident BC students' tuition and fees just manage to maintain the cost of educating them. The MUCH higher tuition and fees paid by foreign students allow universities to expand, improve and advance their levels of education. All in addition to their living expenses.
morechatter
15-11-2007
Priceless
I have on more than one occasion worked right along with foreign students and it sure opened my eyes to how different our value systems were but yet how much in common we really had. I did note students I had the opportunity to work with were very committed to their studies and were driven to excel. Despite the obvious language barriers I remember us putting together top notch reports and coming up with strategies with students from other countries and getting a really good understanding of the different cultures I would most likely have future contact with - now that's priceless.
zalm
16-11-2007
Moneymaker? Not so sure
Fii said,
Here you go Fii - www.bellacc.com should be able to get you started.
And it's all taxed, but you are entitled to deduct all your expenses from income earned from homestays, but not from your regular job. It can be a bit complex. If you elect not to declare it, don't get caught. I've never met anyone who was, but I wouldn't want to either.
Lemme know if you get your $750 a month....