International students stand together against the proposal to increase their tuition by 5 per cent for the 2024/25 academic year
Laura Morales (she/her) // Video Production Manager
Capilano University’s Finance Committee proposed a five per cent increase to international tuition at the last Board of Governors (BoG) meeting in 2024, a change that would go against a commitment that President Paul Dangerfield had reiterated only eight months before the proposal came along—to keep international tuition increases at par with domestic increases.
The Capilano Students’ Union has launched a campaign to oppose this proposal by encouraging international students to send letters to the Board about how this increase would impact them. As of the time of writing, 267 letters have been sent. If Board members assumed that international students would simply have their parents cover the next term’s tuition without noticing the increase, they are now confronted with the harsh reality of their debt, precarious housing, food insecurity and night shifts at fast food chains or other entry-level jobs. This is mainly because most international students currently in Canada applied for study permits before the cost-of-living requirement doubled from $10,000 (set in the early 2000s) to $20,635 for applications received from 2024 onwards. Many had to adapt quickly to afford their daily expenses, raise money for their next term tuition and even send money back home to pay for loans.
Even if the Board is indifferent to how a five per cent increase would aggravate the struggle of hundreds of international students, the fact that many would have to graduate with two-year diplomas instead of pursuing four-year degrees as initially intended, or would be unable to continue studying at all, should prompt them to reconsider whether the university can afford this increase if it ultimately results in a loss.
To be fair, raising international tuition is not an uncommon practice among post-secondary institutions in Canada, since international students are not included in the government’s policy to limit domestic tuition increases to two per cent, at par with inflation. After the cap on international enrolment as well as other policy changes around immigration were announced at the end of 2023, institutions like the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), Thompson Rivers University (TRU), University of British Columbia (UBC), and University of Victoria (UVic) implemented increases between 3 and 6.75 per cent. To alleviate financial uncertainty, some included fixed tuition rates for program lengths, differentiated rates for new and returning students, or long-term planning assistance to help international students manage rising costs over the duration of their programs. On the other hand, along with Langara College and Douglas College, CapU maintained a two per cent increase for both. Still, due to the disparity between domestic and international tuition, two per cent is still problematic, as it further exacerbates the gap between both. Taking the Business Administration program at CapU as an example, a domestic student taking a full course load would have to pay $88 more in their second year than they did in their first year, while an international student would have to pay $394 more with the same tuition increase. Additionally, with a five per cent increase, international students would have to pay $985.35 more—eleven times more than domestic students.
In an interview with the Courier in March 2024, President Dangerfield assured students that the budget for the next three years had already been set based on a two per cent increase. He also addressed concerns around how the cap on international enrolment would affect the university’s budget, stating that the number of international students the provincial government is allowing CapU to have fits the reduced international number they had planned anyway, during the President Update on March 4, 2024.
So, if it’s not inflation nor the cap set by the government, then why is CapU considering a five per cent increase on international tuition? And why would international students be willing to pay this inflated price?
Canadian universities compete to recruit international students, and at the same time, Canada competes worldwide, mainly with the U.S., U.K. and Australia, which together accounted for 34 per cent of all student imports in 2017. Whether it is the Temporary Graduate visa offered to international students in Australia, the Graduate visa offered by the U.K. or the Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) offered by Canada, the marketing of education as the first step towards permanent residency has allowed international fees to increase unreasonably—”no foreign student was going to sell the family farm and go into generational debt because of the intrinsic value of a Centennial College certificate. The winking promise of a pathway to permanency was the entire selling point,” stated Nicholas Hune-Brown in an article published by Toronto’s The Local. The article featured a 24/7 encampment held by international students in Brampton for 143 days, protesting an extension on their PGWP under the slogan, “Good enough to work, good enough to stay.”
As post-secondary institutions increasingly relied on international enrolment, recruitment became more competitive and more expensive, not for the Canadian government or post-secondary institutions, but for international students. The services of international recruitment agents are often presented as free of charge, but as mentioned in the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration in February 2022, “A third to a quarter of tuition money is being offshored,” in the form of commissions to recruitment agencies, who often act as, “unauthorized immigration practitioners,” according to Canadian Immigration Lawyer William Tao. Since the financial burden is not borne by either post-secondary or government institutions that could set a reasonable standard for recruitment fees, international students are left at the mercy of the unstable standards of this unregulated industry.
In other words, the cap on international enrolment is not the direct cause for the proposal to increase international tuition by five per cent, because the problem is not a low allocation number given by the provincial government, but the university’s recruitment efforts not reaching this number. This problem, however, is not unique to CapU. Potential students worldwide are receiving conflicting messages— Canada’s cap on international enrollment signals to them, “Canada doesn’t want you to come,” and the narrative from international students already here, such as those who protested in Brampton, indicates, “Canada doesn’t want you to stay.” When board members cast their vote at the BoG meeting on February 25, they should keep in mind that many international students at CapU are also aware of these messages, and if a five per cent increase is approved, it would not only be disheartening—it could be the last straw.
To be fair, raising international tuition is not an uncommon practice among post-secondary institutions in Canada, since international students are not included in the government’s policy to limit domestic tuition increases to 2 per cent, at par with inflation. After the cap on international enrolment as well as other policy changes around immigration announced at the end of 2023, these are some of the actions taken by other post-secondary institutions for the 2024/25 academic year:
- BCIT increased international tuition by 6 per cent but committed to help international students plan their educational cost¸ by publishing the maximum percentage that international fees may increase in the next four years.
- TRU started a new model that fixes tuition rates for the length of programs, which allows international students to make long-term financial plans to cover the total cost of their education but increased international tuition by 5 per cent.
- UBC raised international tuition by 5 per cent for new incoming international undergraduate students and by 3 per cent for continuing international undergraduate students, which at least makes a distinction between new and returning students.
- UVic stated that they do not plan to raise tuition to offset the decrease in tuition revenue resulting from fewer international students, but that undergraduate international tuition will increase by 6.75 per cent because it “reflects actual cost increases.”
On the other hand, along with Langara College and Douglas College, Capilano University maintained a 2 per cent increase for both domestic and international students for the current academic year. Due to the disparity between domestic and international tuition fees, a 2 per cent increase is not ideal, as it further exacerbates the gap between both types of tuition. Taking the business program at CapU as an example, a domestic student taking a full course load would have to pay $88 more in their second year than they did in their first year, while an international student would have to pay $394 more with the same tuition increase. Additionally, with a 5 per cent increase, international students would have to pay $985.35 more—eleven times more than domestic students.
Since Paul Dangerfield became CapU’s president, he has maintained a commitment to limit international fee increases at par with domestic at 2 per cent. However, he announced on March 4 that the 2024-2025 academic year will be his last at the university, creating uncertainty among international students about whether the next president would commit to keeping this limit. He addressed this concern in an interview with the Courier in March, 2024, explaining that the budget for the next three years had already been set based on a two per cent increase for both. He also stated that increasing tuition at a high rate is not part of the university’s values and commitment to make the experience for students as positive as possible, as this is “the best way to differentiate ourselves as a university that’s actually managing its money really well and not burdening the students.”
The president’s comforting words lowered the guard of international students for the next eight months, until the proposed 5 per cent increase made its way into the last Board of Governors (BoG) meeting of 2024. This proposal cannot be entirely justified by the cap on international enrolment, since Dangerfield assured CapU community that the number of students the provincial government is allowing CapU to have fits the reduced international number they had planned anyway. “We’re in good shape, so any kind of rumors or noise that you’re hearing, that we’re going to be in trouble next year, I don’t see that happening at all,” he said at the “President’s Update to [the] CapU Community” on March 4, 2024. So, if it’s not inflation nor the cap set by the government, then why is CapU considering a 5 per cent increase on international tuition? And why would international students be willing to pay this inflated price?
