This year, Providence University College was allocated 120 provincial attestation letters by the province, which its provost Nicholas Greco said is a decrease of almost 90 per cent. The letters are required when international students apply for study permits in Canada.
My first reaction is: “Good!”
Providence has always been a sleazy college, taking advantage of the Christian isolationist elements in rural MB. “Bridal college”, we used to call it.
But when the foreign student cash cow arrived, they pivoted in that direction. I would question the value of the education that those foreign student were getting.
Foreign students are great for Canada if Canada, but with conditions: their education has to be an actual education (otherwise we’re just exploiting them as unskilled workers); they shouldn’t be paying exorbitant tuition to fund education (this is exploitative, and a failure of the province to properly fund education); private universities should not be able to use this program as cash cows; and we should be finding a good match between good students, good schools, and reasonable levels of immigration.
Anyway, I rant.
But when the foreign student cash cow arrived, they pivoted in that direction.
Setting the specific college aside…this is true for pretty much all of them. Government funding and domestic tuition rates simply aren’t enough to cover operating costs, and post-secondary institutions have been (over) relying on foreign students for decades.
