By Damilola Olufemi
British Columbia, a province in Canada, has banned new colleges from enrolling international students, including students from Nigeria for two years.
The province said its decision to place the ban was to address exploitative practices within the education system.
British Columbia is a western province in Canada, bordering the Pacific Ocean.
The Minister of Post-Secondary Education, Selina Robinson on Tuesday disclosed that the freeze is necessary to rectify flaws in an international education system that “has not been working as well as it should.”
Robinson sighted a case where a student from India, expecting in-class instruction, discovered on the first day that the entire course would be taught online, leading to dissatisfaction and questioning the value of the investment.
“She arrived here being told that there would be in-class instruction, only to discover on her first day of class as she showed up that the entire course would be taught online. And she couldn’t understand why she spent all that money for an online programme.
“We do need to stop the bad actors from misleading these students, and that’s what we’re here to fix,” Robinson said.
In addition to the ban, Robinson announced the implementation of minimum language requirements at private institutions to “better prepare” international students before coming to British Columbia.
Robinson added, “More details on the language requirement will be released in March as work is still being done on that front.”
Of the 175,000 international tertiary education students in British Columbia, about 54 per cent are enrolled in private institutions, and the province hosts 280 private schools, with 80 per cent located in the Lower Mainland.