Federal Government limiting international student intake, how does this impact PG?

“The reason colleges and universities rely so heavily on international students is lack of proper funding. So how does the provincial government respond to this, and how do we create a better funding model that does not have organizations relying so heavily on one population?” she said.

The international students currently at CNC won’t be impacted, and the students planning to come in for the spring semester are all set. That means CNC has until the upcoming fall semester to plan, but with so much unknown at the moment it’s difficult to make any concrete decisions. In the meantime, it’s preparing for a potential revenue downturn.

“50% of the budget comes from revenue, from tuition fees, and the other 50 is grants and other sources.So if you’re cutting that 50% by 35% there’s a lack of funding there,” said Abubakar-Depenau.

“We would have to do the math once we we get our numbers. It (revenue) could reduce. And if so, then we plan for that. And we still have time, we’re in the budget process right now. So timing wise, I think we’re still in a good window so that we can be prepared for September,” said CNC’s VP of student affairs Shelley Carter-Rose.

The Federal Government’s move isn’t a huge surprise to Carter-Rose. In fact, she said CNC has been planning its own international student plan for 18 months. It’s unknown at the moment how well CNC’s plan will match up with the Federal and Provincial Government’s upcoming moves, it does give CNC optimism moving forward.

“We’re feeling we have a strong foundation. We knew the government was giving signals that there would be change, we just didn’t know what that change would be,” she said.

Once more details come out CNC will begin providing concrete answers and solutions, but for the immediate feature it feels prepared to handle the changes ahead. Collaboration with all levels of government will be key to ensuring the health of CNC and other schools across the province as they could all face downturns in the international student population.

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by Tommy Osborne

Federal Government limiting international student intake, how does this impact PG?

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