Investigation finds international student growth has left students overwhelmed, educators frustrated

Last year alone, international students provided $21.6B into campuses, communities and economies nation-wide, but reporters from the St Catharine's Standard and the Toronto Starinvestigated whether Canadian colleges are equipped to support the influx of international students. The investigation found that international enrolment had risen dramatically in the past five years, following changes to Canada’s immigration policies in 2014, and that the unprecedented growth leaving student overwhelmed and educators frustrated. “A lot of colleges saw this international opportunity as the goose that lays the golden egg,” says Algonquin College faculty member Enrico De Francesco. The Star highlights the many barriers, financial difficulties, and housing problems that international students face in coming to Canada. “Our members have talked about the stress and impacts of the influx of students,” said RM Kennedy OPSEU chair of the college faculty division. “We are not prepared for this. There are not enough front-end services to support these students with housing and counselling in their transition.” The Star | The Star (National)