Worswick: In this economy? It’s time to welcome foreign students again

A more strategic approach to international students and rebalancing in favour of universities and college programs where there is high labour force needs:

…In the short term, we should prioritize international university students over their college counterparts, since they pay higher tuition. Algonquin College in Ottawa lists international tuition and book costs at $16,000 to $22,000, which is much less than across town at Carleton University, where international tuition ranges from $34,000 to $53,000. To be clear, these are both fine academic institutions that are important parts of the Canadian educational system. However, an international student at Carleton contributes more to Canadian national income through tuition revenue than does their counterpart at Algonquin.

Also, university students have higher average earnings upon graduation than college students and are more likely to meet the admission criteria under the Skilled Worker immigration program after graduation. And unlike college students, university students are more likely to be involved in academic research, which helps with our productivity challenges, and they are more likely to be the leaders of technology spin-off companies.

Should we have international students at colleges? Yes, but at lower numbers than in the recent past and concentrated in key fields. Students doing programs in the building trades should be prioritized given the need to expand our housing stock. International students in health care programs should also be prioritized, as this will help us to expand our strained health sector.

Will increasing international students create another population surge? Not necessarily. One sensible first step would be to quickly wind down the lower wage part of our Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

Each temporary foreign worker’s impact on housing and health care is similar to that of an international university student. Replacing temporary foreign workers with international university students in the same communities would lead to a boost in tuition revenue and improve our pool of highly skilled potential immigrants, but without affecting the demand for local housing and health care. This makes even more sense ahead of a possible tariff-driven recession where unemployed auto workers may wish they had access to jobs held by temporary foreign workers….

Source: In this economy? It’s time to welcome foreign students again