Being a former international student myself (I now hold a Canadian PR), I was taken aback when I heard that in the recent throne speech, the Ontario Government is planning to increase the intake of international students by 50% in the “new five-year plan” for education. Of course, this seems to imply good news for me, as it no doubt suggests that students studying halfway around the globe will enjoy an increase in the level of support available to them. I am, however, concerned about the rapidity of such an influx on an education system that already has issues to deal with, and remain contemplative with regards to this proposal to raise the quota on the international student intake.
The reason I used “quota” when referring to the student intake is due to the fact that care must be taken to select the criteria of evaluation when implementing a new educational policy. In another section of the speech, it was mentioned that our current system has “raised test scores [and] increased the graduation rate” of high schools. Yes, try telling that to our Physics professors as they attempt to explain basic principles requiring prior knowledge of integration to increasing numbers of students who have no knowledge of it at all.
That is the risk that a focus on statistics-based rhetoric will bring – if you want to achieve quantitative goals, certain qualitative markers will have to be sacrificed. I am sure that is not intended here, and that we want an increase in numbers of international students while ensuring that they contribute to the Ontario system as proposed. I am sure the Ministry of Education also did not intend to cut down university syllabuses due to high-school graduates not being able to understand a concept they removed from high school, but hey, a quota needs to be met right?
Another point of concern is the motivation behind such a proposal. It may be noted that the quality of education has little to do with it. International students are expected to “strengthen our schools and create more Ontario jobs”. What can be seen here is that the Ontario government is leaning in the direction of vastly promoting educational tourism – where the product (diplomas, learning lifestyle etc) are promoted aggressively abroad to people willing to spend their money here in Ontario.
In a 2006 study performed by Roslyn Kunin & Associates, a Canadian economic analyst consultancy, it was noted that in British Columbia, the vast majority of the jobs directly created as a result of rising international student numbers were in the government sector. Additionally, the retail sector (think your local H&M) benefited the most indirectly due to increased student numbers. Education-related employment, however, was a mere side note compared with other economic gains.
This is worrisome, as Ontario’s new goal for post-secondary education puts such a heavy focus on educational tourism. The international ranking of Canadian higher education has already been deteriorating over the past few years. Will we be sacrificing the quality of Ontario’s education due to economic incentives?
A more subtle risk of raising the ratio of international students is the discrimination that might be perceived by local students when competing with their potentially academically superior international counterparts. After all, that’s one of the arguments advocates of increasing international student numbers use; that local students are motivated to become better due to increased competition. However, it must be noted perceptions of being inferior in anyway can lead to increases in the feeling of being socially-rejected. This may very well lead to a decline in the local students’ self-evaluation. In an academic structure that wishes to create the “builders, dreamers and innovators of the future”, this potential for social discontent seems to be out of place.
I am fearful that if a quantitative and economically motivated approach is utilized to attempt to become a global leader in education, there will be new problems created in addition to the current ones, and may lay the seed for a fragmented and ineffective education system – a system that I did not subscribe to when I first came to Canada.
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