At what cost: International students face additional barriers to education

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Editor’s Note: The subject matter in this article may be sensitive to some readers. Students can reach out to KPU’s 24/7 counseling services at 1.844.451.9700, KPU International student support at 604-599-2866, or Gurdwara Dukh Nivarin Sahib at 604-580-1313. 

Applying for post-secondary education can be exciting, whether it be local or across the world. For international students, it means they have the opportunity to learn a new language, culture, and try different cuisines and activities. However, many international students are sold the “Canadian Dream,” and it doesn’t always turn out the way they expected. 

With the rising cost of tuition, living expenses, and visa applications for international students, it becomes more difficult to make ends meet and enjoy their studies, an outcome that’s detrimental to their mental health. 

“[The] picture we know as Canada, [is not the] real picture,” says Narinder Singh Walia, the president of Gurdwara Dukh Nivaran Sahib, a Sikh temple in Surrey. 

“There’s so many problems. Our interest rates, rental properties [are] currently so high. [The] real picture of Canada is not [what] people actually see in all of Canada,” Walia says. 

There are more than 143,000 international students in B.C., and India ranks as the top country, accounting for over one-third of the demographic, according to CTV News. At Kwantlen Polytechnic University, 80 per cent of its 7,524 international students self-identify as Indian, according to the 2021 Student Satisfaction Survey Report. 

Walia says many parents from India take out a loan for their children to go to school in Canada and elsewhere for a better life. 

Indian international students come to Canada due to India’s nominal job growth, with Punjab specifically suffering high unemployment. This has led many families to move to an economy that allows room for growth. 

“When they come here, they’re [17 to 20-years-old], the first thing they feel is loneliness. They also have a lot of problems here, their expenses,” Walia says. 

International students pay more than triple of what domestic students pay across the country, with B.C. and Ontario having the highest costs for post-secondary education. 

Financial pressure and stress can impact mental and physical health with serious health problems including depression and anxiety disorders often linked with substance abuse. 

“We have people in our lives … who have come here as international students themselves, and have faced various forms of exploitation,” says Jeevan Sangha, editor in chief of 5X Press, a South Asian youth culture magazine. 

“It’s something that we’ve known has been happening for a really long time. Over the last few years, we’ve heard about stories of international students losing their lives to mental illness, to suicide.”

A survey by One Voice Canada, a non-profit that supports vulnerable migrant students, found over 90 per cent of Indian international students were concerned about their expenses in Canada, 68 per cent of whom were in debt. It also found that young, female students are more likely to be targets of sexual assault due to economic dependence on abusers and cultural stigmas against reporting it. 

In January 2021, Khalsa Aid, a non-profit humanitarian organization, conducted a survey on  international students in Canada which found around six in 10 students suffer from poor well-being, with three in 10 having clinical or major depressive disorder. 

“There aren’t a lot of robust support networks in place to aid the transition for international students,” Sangha says. 

“When they move here and are adjusting to academic life, immigration comes hard enough without being a student, they also have to pay extremely exorbitant prices and tuition, and keep up with the competitive cost of living, especially in the big hubs in Canada, like in Surrey.” 

According to Statistics Canada, the average domestic undergraduate student pays about $6,383 per year while international students pay $35,266. The Northern BC Graduate Students’ Society also mentions the fees for international students is unregulated and has increased 64 per cent since 2006, while the tuition for domestic students is capped only two per cent annually. 

“International students don’t receive the sizable provincial grants that subsidize domestic student tuition,” wrote Carole St. Laurent, associate vice-president of international at KPU, in an email statement to The Runner. 

“[International students] coming to KPU for their education are well-informed about the financial commitments linked with studying abroad,” St. Laurent wrote.  

The average cost of tuition for KPU international students ranges between $15,100 to $24,367 per semester depending on what program a student is in, according to KPU’s website. 

In an email statement sent to The Runner, KPU wrote the surplus of funds are transferred to the KPU Foundation to help support students with financial aid, scholarships, and bursaries, including new awards for international students. 

“KPU does recognize financial need and increased financial pressure due to inflation, inclusive of food security issues,” Joshua Mitchell, vice president of student affairs, wrote in an email to The Runner. 

The British Columbia Federation of Students (BCFS), a provincial alliance of post-secondary institutions throughout the province, reported that because of government underfunding, institutions depend on international student fees to balance their declining budgets, in turn making it difficult for the students to manage their funds, and in some cases, results in them having to leave the country before completing their education. 

For the 2022-23 school year, KPU’s international student revenue was $127 million, accounting for almost half of the university’s revenue and $18 million over what they predicted in the budget draft for that year. 

With high tuition rates, many students struggle to cope with food affordability. While the Kwantlen Student Association Food Bank is a basic support resource, there is still a spillover. Last year, the Guru Nanak Food Bank in Surrey reported that out of 2,200 food bank members, more than 1,500 are international students. 

International students also significantly contribute to the economy, creating around 31,400 jobs in 2017 and adding to sectors such as housing, food, and transportation, according to the BCFS. 

Until Dec. 31, international students can work more than 20 hours per week off campus if they applied for a study permit or extension on or before Oct. 7, 2022. This regulation came into effect November last year and is a change to the previous law which allowed eligible international students to work up to 20 hours per week while classes are in session. In 2024, international students will be back to working a maximum of 20 hours per week. 

While some international students can work more than 20 hours per week, this still doesn’t keep them afloat on their own with the cost of living and tuition. If the average international student were to work 40 hours a week on the current provincial minimum wage at $16.75, they would earn $32,160 a year, making it almost impossible to cover living expenses, let alone tuition. 

“When students come here, they have to work and raise their own money for living, rent, food, everything,” Walia says. 

“These days it’s upon students, they have to pay almost $1,000 [a month] for a basement if they are sharing a room. They have to raise their fees, raise their expenses.” 

After the federal government’s International Education Strategy Plan in 2014, the number of international students almost doubled in 2018. The federal government estimates that international student tuition fees contributed about $21.6 billion to Canada’s GDP that same year. 

While international student tuition increases job opportunities in Canada, international students struggle to find job prospects for themselves when compared to domestic students, which leads to them working low-paying jobs where they may face exploitation. 

“Young international students who are working hours that are outside of their [20 hours per week] allotted time through a study permit in Canada are being encouraged by their employers to take substances to help them get through the shift, which can ultimately lead into issues with addiction or dependence on substances to get through their work weeks,” Sangha says. 

“A lot of the time, companies that employ large amounts of international students are run by folks who know international students feel like their place in Canada is precarious. They feel at any time, it can be taken away, and so a lot of the time they use that as a way to favour them.”  

The Naujawan Support Network is a Canadian based group mainly composed of international and immigrant students. They target employers they believe are exploiting workers’ rights and help students learn about their own rights. The network has had over 1,000 students ask for help to recover stolen wages, having successfully recovered the wages of 74 students, amounting to about $300,000.  

Joban Kaur is a Naujawan Support Network executive and says many desperate students fall prey to easy money schemes, usually in the form of cash jobs. 

“At work, they’re being exploited. … They are forced to work in conditions they don’t want to just because they are having this boundary of working 20 hours per week. Most of the time, employers refuse to pay, and that creates a lot of [issues] because international students are not people who have savings, they are hand to mouth, paycheque to paycheque,” Kaur says. 

“Students definitely should focus more on finding an opportunity [at home]. If they find one, they definitely should not migrate to another country because it’s harder here compared to in India.” 

5X Press held a community forum earlier this year for discussions on issues South Asian international students face in the province. 

“I think, from the [forum] conversation, … a lot of folks in the community, especially within the South Asian community, don’t understand the depth and the extent of what international students are facing… they might think that it’s a one off thing, but it’s really a systemic issue,” Sangha says. 

“It’s incumbent upon the government and upon academic structures to support the people they’re profiting off of so much, especially when we know there are disproportionate barriers they’re facing.” 

Walia says Gurdwara Dukh Nivaran Sahib is often a place of comfort for many international students. During the pandemic, they offered mattresses, blankets, bedsheets in addition to helping them get groceries to keep them on their feet. 

“We continue that help going on, and to this day, 27,000 [have gotten] our welcome package,” Walia says. 

Sangha says finding ways to support international students comes down to educating community members and having more literacy around what the process of moving looks like to help make the transition easier for these students. 

“If you’re willing to profit so much off of human beings, the very least you can do is allocate even one per cent of the funding that’s coming in to making sure that there’s subsidized housing or … opportunities to get jobs or places where they can find community,” she says.  

“I think it’s not a super unreasonable ask, and it’s something that we’ve yet to see in a deliberate and intentional way.”