By Preeteesh Peetabh Singh
Dialog Reporter
“Tuition costs too high? Pay your fee with our line of credit at easy interest rates”. This is how a major bank in Canada lures international students into its credit scheme. Almost everyone is aware of the hefty fee that students have to pay for their education, they try to empathize with them, but to no avail.
The country does not complain, and why should they? A major chunk of its economy comes from international students who enrol for undergraduate, graduate or professional course in Canada.
According to a report from the Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, carried out by Roslyn Kunin & Associates in May 2012, the amount that international students spend on tuition, accommodation and discretionary items is $7.7 billion.
This amount is higher than the country’s exports of coniferous lumber ($5.1 billion), coal ($ 6.1 billion), unwrought aluminum ($6 billion) and even greater than the exports of helicopters, airplanes and spacecraft ($6.9 billion). Additionally, international students in Canada created over81,000 jobs and generated more than $445 million in government revenue for 2011.
Considering these huge expenses, what makes the students still come?
“I believe that students not only come here to study, but also to work. There is no doubt that the education in Canada is world class, but landing up with good jobs after completing the course is a motivating factor.” said Olena Kachor, an international student from Ukraine studying business administration at George Brown College (GBC).
“The tuition fee they charge us is absurd, it’s almost four times higher than the local students. If the effort that we put in is equal, why does the fee vary?” asks Ankit Sharma, an international student from India and a GBC alumnus. “People come in to Canada from developing countries like China, South Korea, India or the Middle East hoping for better income, a better standard of living, and eventually a better future, but as it turns out, even the job prospects look gloomy for us.”
Not only the tuition fee but international students dont get any bursaries for lodging ,books n other school supplies ..whereas OSAP covers most of them for all domestic student, int fees is a big contributor in cdn economy and govt shud introduce more programs to support their stay in canada.
Hey Anu,
It won’t help a bunch but there are bursaries for international students. Go o the Student Association office and ask for help where to find them or email sadiredueq@georgebrown.ca
Not only that but even the number of jobs for int students are very few. In the lib there are only 2 yet we bring in 80% of their revenue!!
I pay C$12,478 per year for 3 years and that translates to close to C$ 40,000 and yet I am treated really badly here.
Local students pay C$3,300 per year and they get all the benefits, why???
The services of GBC are mediocre, they do not respect us and charge us over the roof prices. Most of the college professors know less then we do. Some don’t know how to operate computers, and many even use a calculator to calculate simple calculations, yet I am an Indian from Africa and there the profs use their minds to calculate simple mathematical calculations. How is the world worst continent able to do better than GBC ?
All these semesters I’ve been paying GBC student association and they have not even approached me or invited me for any events, they charged my up to C$561 and have done nothing for me. I WANT MY MONEY BACK.
I accidentally went to their event hosted in the Kings lounge and found that not even 1% of GBC students show up….. can you guys stop embarrassing me and refund me. Small lounge for the college don’t u think so.
The food restaurants at GBC tastes really bad and there are not too many options outside either, if there are it generally takes up a lot of time to walk there, wait in line and get served then walk back to college and eat, 40 mins wasted when it should have only taken 20 mins……
GBC YOU ARE GREAT!!! (sarcasm)