Increasing international student enrolment has clearly become a top priority for Ontario’s postsecondary institutions, including its 24 publicly-funded colleges, as government investment in the sector continues to decline. The issue of the colleges’ international activities has generated intense public concern and outrage after it came to light that at least three colleges have established branch campuses or programs in Saudi Arabia, a repressive country known for its severe clampdown on freedom of expression, mass executions and gender-based violence.
Neither the colleges nor the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU) have been fully transparent as to the scope and nature of the colleges' international activities. The Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which represents over 8,600 support staff and nearly 12,000 faculty at Ontario’s 24 public colleges, believes that there is a place for international activity within the colleges’ mandate, but that the status quo of financial irregularities, human rights abuses, and gender inequality is simply not acceptable.
OPSEU's full submission is below.
Leave Speculation to Bay Street
A submission to the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities’ consultation on a Postsecondary International Education Strategy for Ontario
April 13, 2016
Ontario Public Service Employees Union, 100 Lesmill Road, Toronto, Ontario M3B 3P8
www.opseu.org
Introduction
“The community college system was created to prepare Ontario citizens for the specialized, in-demand jobs that bring investment and prosperity to our province. Let the colleges do what they excel at, and leave speculation to Bay Street.”
– Warren (Smokey) Thomas, President, OPSEU
Increasing international student enrolment has clearly become a top priority for Ontario’s postsecondary institutions, including its 24 publicly-funded colleges, as government investment in the sector continues to decline. The government’s plan to reorganize the current student financial assistance program in order to cover the tuition fees of low-income students in 2017-18 is certainly welcome news, but it does not address the underlying problem of a badly underfunded postsecondary system.
According to Colleges Ontario, more than 33,000 international students are currently enrolled in the publicly-funded Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology (CAATs).…the right, without constriction by prescribed doctrine, to freedom of teaching and discussion, freedom in carrying out research and disseminating and publishing the results thereof, freedom to express freely their opinion about the institution or system in which they work, freedom from institutional censorship and freedom to participate in professional or representative academic bodies. All higher-education teaching personnel should have the right to fulfil their functions without discrimination of any kind and without fear of repression by the state or any other source.
Download OPSEU's submission to the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities