British Columbia (B.C.) Minister of Post-Secondary Education Selina Robinson during a news conference in Surrey, B.C., announced a 2-year ban on new colleges enrolling international students.

The Canadian province is banning new post-secondary institutions from enrolling international students into their programs for the next two years and according to the Minister, the reason behind the ban is to root out “exploitive practices”plaguing the system.

According to Robinson, the ban on international students is necessary to correct faults in an International education system that has not been working the way it should.

She said the province began an investigation in March 2023 and found instances of “poor-quality education and a lack of adequate instructors”.

According to Robinson, students are scared of speaking up to protect their visas, and “scaring away” of students from lodging formal complaints by private institutions.

Robinson said, one student told her that her family in India saved money to send her to B.C. for a “quality education.” Instead, she was placed in online classes upon arrival.

“She arrived here being told that there would be in-class instruction, only to discover on her first day of class as she showed up that the entire course would be taught online,” according to the Minister.

“And she couldn’t understand why she spent all that money for an online program.

“We do need to stop the bad actors from misleading these students, and that’s what we’re here to fix.” 

The minister speaking further announced that the B.C. Province was setting minimum language requirements at private institutions so that international students could better prepare before coming to B.C..

According to Robinson, more details will be released in March 2024 regarding the minimum language requirements.

According to CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation),

Of the 175,000 international post-secondary students from more than 150 countries in B.C., about 54 percent are enrolled in private institutions. There are 280 of those private schools in the province, and 80 percent of them are in the Lower Mainland.

Robinson in a long statement said the students are being taken advantage of and the province will step up inspection of schools to ensure standards are met.

“They worry that if they complain, it will risk their student visa, and it will sacrifice all the effort their families have put into making sure they can get a quality education,” she said. “So, they’re less likely to complain.

“As a result of hearing that, we’re going to be … developing a system where we’ll be on-site and doing a more proactive evaluation of programs.”

The minister said the two-year ban gives the province some time to assess the impact of recent changes, such as the federal government’s capping of study permits it approves over the next two years.