The College of New Caledonia’s international student population is concerned about course availability and putting a cap on enrollment numbers, specifically in the business management diploma program.
“We have more students in the program than the program itself can handle which is leading to a whole bunch of different issues which is like shortage of support staff, housing issues, and whatnot,” explains CNC Student Union Organizer Harman Dandiwal, before moving on to a short-term fix for this issue.
“New courses, hire more faculty to compensate for students who haven’t been able to enroll in any of the classes.”
A town hall meeting was held earlier in the week for international students to express concerns and opinions on solutions such as these, however, CNC’s Acting Vice-President Academic Chad Thompson says this is something they have looked into.
“We have hired more faculty to ensure that we’ve got the sections, the courses available for the students and that’s not something new, that’s something we’ve been doing for the past year.”
In addition to Dandiwal’s short-term goals, which Thompson assures has been looked into and steps have been taken to fix, there is a long-term goal in mind as well.
“Put some sort of regulation and cap on the business management program so that the issue of over-enrollment doesn’t happen again.”
A report is expected to be presented in the near future to CNC which will outline three things. It will have a petition about regulations for the business management course, personal stories of hardship from international students, and a list of priorities the international student community would like reviewed.
Thompson is confident a solution, or multiple solutions, will be found.
“[International student’s] desire to get a quality education here, I think is excellent, and because of that passion and that commitment to education from the students, I think we’re going to be able to get a good resolution to the situation.”
Dandiwal also mentioned getting in touch with the Ministry of Education to put a cap on tuition fees for international students. He says students coming to Canada budget based on the tuition prior to leaving their home country, but the extra expenses once tuition fees are raised create additional hurdles for them to comfortably live while attending post-secondary school.
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
