What’s the value of a Canadian post-secondary education?

Firsthand Views of the Canadian University System

Just after I turned 18, I moved from my family farm in southwestern Manitoba to pursue a Bachelor of Arts at a neighbouring post-secondary institution 100km away. College/university administrators across the country agree that most Canadians act like I did, enrolling in post-secondary education not far from home. There are exceptions, like many Ontarians heading off to the east coast, but by and large Canadian post-secondary institutions enrol many young adults primarily from their surrounding communities.

When I was a young adult trying to find my way in the world, it was Brandon University where my mind was opened to things beyond the prairie wheatfields. In retrospect, I can see that the study of English literature, French language, and francophone cultures played an important role in developing my career that looks out around the world.

Historic plaque outside of Clark Hall, which houses the Faculty of Arts at Brandon University. Personal photo (2023).

Back in the early 2000s, there were a small number of international students on campus, and my job as a Residence Assistant helped me get to know more of them better. I even brought a few exchange students from Taiwan to visit my family’s farm. I remember well how much fun we had taking photos on large farm machinery in the wheat field. (One of those students now lives in Taiwan with her Jamaican husband, her eyes having been opened beyond her homeland as well.)

In a small primarily undergraduate university with small classes, I was nurtured by caring professors who challenged my thinking. First-year classes ranged from 30 to 100, and I even had a fourth-year critical theory seminar with 7 other students! My professors saw my eagerness to learn and encouraged me to pursue graduate school. I explored options beyond Manitoba’s borders, understanding that new geographies would promote different types of learning.

University & College Funding in Ontario

I ultimately selected the University of Ottawa in the province of Ontario, which runs post-secondary education differently than Manitoba does. Ontario’s tuitions fees are different, as are some of its credentials. In Canada, post-secondary education is a provincial responsibility, even as immigration documents for international students are a federal responsibility.

Explaining these provincial distinctions to international students simultaneously trying to distinguish between programs, tuition fees, and local town/city context adds a layer of complexity to the conversations international student recruiters have. I know firsthand from my former recruitment and admissions roles in Ontario’s college and university sector.

I’ve actually learned a lot about Canadian colleges and universities after about 15 years working in the sector between Manitoba and Ontario. I’ve been fortunate to have had personal and professional cause to set foot on nearly 40 college and university campuses in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario Quebec, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland.

Personal photo of Simon Fraser University (Burnaby, British Columbia) from a recruitment trip in 2022.

One campus I visited in 2019 is Queen’s University, one of Canada’s most prominent universities. Who would have imagined that one of Canada’s most prominent universities would be in financial trouble? While it is not expected that Queen’s will go through a financial crisis like Laurentian University did in 2021-2022, it is worth noting that other Ontario universities have been having greater financial challenges in recent years, especially since a mandatory domestic tuition cut of 10% in 2019 that was not offset by funding from the province that ordered it. The University of Guelph has also been in the news for financial problems and program cuts. Alex Usher’s latest blog post on this topic gets to the core of the Queen’s issue and adds context to current discussions about international student volumes:

“If there is a similarity between Queen’s and Laurentian, it is that Queen’s has not had a lot of luck attracting international students. These days, it seems as though Ontario universities have difficulty balancing their budgets if their student body has fewer than 15% international students; Queen’s is stuck at a shade over 10% and quite simply that spells trouble.”

Another of one Alex Usher’s September 2023 blog posts highlights the source of funding of Ontario’s colleges. It’s shocking. And it happens in large part because Ontario funds college students at a rate of 44% what the other 9 provinces do.

Source: Usher, Alex. “State of Post-Secondary Education in Canada 2023.” https://higheredstrategy.com/spec-2023/

For years, most Canadians who didn’t have a child in university or didn’t work in the sector most likely didn’t understand the increasing role that international students have been paying in funding post-secondary education in Canada. When I used to tell my family what I did for a living, I probably didn’t even explain it to them very thoroughly either.

And now that media columnists and government officials have pointed their fingers at international students for decades of bad Canadian housing policy, it’s time we ask questions about the value and role of Canadian post-secondary education.

• Are Canadians (and provincial governments) willing to pay more in tuition dollars or taxes to maintain the quality of their post-secondary institutions?

• Do we prefer them to cut programs? Increase class sizes?

• How many international students do we want to welcome to our communities?

• Should we continue to use international student tuition fees to maintain the colleges and universities in our communities?

Canada’s Post-Secondary Sector as a Pre-Immigration Process

Over the past decade or so, Canada’s immigration programs have been designed in ways that incentivize certain behaviours (by students and institutions alike) within Canada’s college and university system. Canadian colleges and universities have been acting in ways that were incentivized by provincial and federal governments, both Liberal and Conservative. The January 22 update to Canada’s International Student Program has forced us to have a conversation about those incentives. Here’s a good explainer to supplement a reading of the official update.

From these updates emerge some values in what IRCC wants to incentivize from international students within Canada’s immigration system going forward, or at least in the next two years. Graduate studies is an obvious standout of something IRCC wants to see more of.

Less obvious is how IRCC has devalued two-year college diplomas both by removing spousal open work permit eligibility and through the Minister’s remarks that such programs will lead to two- instead of -three year post-graduation work permits.

Impact on International Students Currently in Canada

I recognize that IRCC is using the study permit cap on new study permits as a way to be kind to international students already in Canada. It’s become clear that college diploma holders have virtually no path to permanent residence in today’s hyper-competitive environment, but opportunities for college graduates on PGWPs now may improve in the years ahead as a result of the new incentives.

But when we’re talking about what we value in Canada’s post-secondary system, it shouldn’t be lost on us that there’s been a big hit on the two-year college diploma, a credential that has immense potential for aligning international student program of study with Canada’s short-term immigration needs. I agree that there are too many Business Management programs that do not lead to positive labour market outcomes (or at least I have not found a college publishing such data), but do we not want to incentivize two-year college diplomas such as Carpentry & Renovation Technician, Computer Programming, and Paramedic? Here’s an example of where the updates are taking a sledgehammer approach, where a scalpel could have been sufficient.  

Within two years, for programs and institutions that remain, I hope we will be incentivized by the changes to the International Student Program to have improved reporting on data points such as career outcomes for both domestic and international students. Do we not look to post-secondary institutions in our communities to help learners better position themselves in our local labour markets?

At the same time, I worry about what happens if we no longer value programs that don’t immediately align with immigration or labour market needs. I can identify key skills from my own humanities education that have helped me shape career that has spanned Canadian provinces and three other countries. Our world has complex problems that we need to examine through lens other than immediate labour market outcomes. 

I think it’s the right time for Canadians to have a conversation about roles and value of their public post-secondary institutions. If they don’t, the Federal immigration department seems ready to have those conversations for them.