Canada’s third largest province, British Columbia, has restricted new colleges from enrolling foreign students, as a measure to crack down on the exploitation of students from other countries.
Following the same decision by Ontario, British Columbia’s Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills Minister, Selina Robinson, made this known on Tuesday, during a press conference in Surrey, Canada.
In a measure which would affect Nigerians and other foreign nationals for two years, Robinson said it was necessary to “taking action to eliminate exploitive practices”.
Robinson said, “We are protecting students and taking action to eliminate bad actors taking advantage of these students!”
She said the ban was among the measures announced as a pause on approvals for two years for new post-secondary institutions seeking to enroll international students.
The minister said BC will also implement more frequent inspections of private post-secondary institutions to ensure that new and improved quality standards are met and that students are properly supported.
The province “is taking action to eliminate exploitive practices and improve the quality of post-secondary education by strengthening quality standards and bringing in new safeguards for international students in BC,” Robinson was quoted in the release.
“International students come here for a good education, but too many are being exploited or taken advantage of.”
“These new requirements will help prevent institutions from taking advantage of international students and will eliminate private institutions’ ability to host international students if they are unable to meet the provincial standards for quality education,” the release stated.
On Friday, the province of Ontario announced it was instituting several measures to protect the integrity of its post-secondary education system.
The announcement from provincial Minister of Colleges and Universities Jill Dunlop includes imposing a moratorium on new partnerships between public and private colleges.
Under these arrangements, new private colleges cannot use public institutions’ credentials to issue certificates and diplomas as this system has been accused of being misused.
The number of international students admitted to British Columbia was 202,565, coming after 526,015 in Ontario, out of a total of 1,028,850 international students with study permits in Canada at the end of 2023.
