Login / RegisterLangara student calls early registration for international students unfair
A Langara College student is unhappy that international students at the public postsecondary institution get a head start signing up for courses each semester.
Blair Fitzpatrick, a mature arts and sciences transfer student at the college in Vancouver, called the early-registration policy unfair.
Under the policy, all international students can start registering for courses several days before other students who are not enrolled in structured degree or career programs.
For the upcoming fall semester, international students start registration on June 20 while domestic students such as Fitzpatrick must wait until June 25.
“I don’t know if they just started doing this or if this is the way they’ve always been doing things, but it just struck me as really unfair that international students were given a head start on registering for classes,” Fitzpatrick told the Straight by phone.
“To me it just seems like the only right thing to do is allow every student who’s registered for a semester to at the same time start registering for their classes.”
A Langara College official defended the policy, saying the college has always allowed different categories of students to register at different times.
However, the policy has been updated to allow to all international students, not just new ones, to have an earlier registration date, said Ian Humphreys, associate vice-president of student development and marketing.
“The reason for that is international students represent only a small percentage of our total student population and we were finding that those small number of students were being overwhelmed by the very much larger number of domestic students and were finding it almost impossible to get courses. So we gave them an early opportunity to register in advance of domestic students,” he told the Straight by phone.
Humphreys argued domestic students at Langara benefit from higher international-student enrollment. He said the fee revenue allows more overall student spaces to be offered in courses.
Humphreys also said the college has no record of any official complaints about the registration policy for international students.
this is how its done at most schools, whether in written policy or not.
what the schools forget is that international students may pay more cash upfront, but that long term income schools get from the government is paid for by citizens who went to local schools. citizens pay WAY more for their education because they pay for it in taxes for their entire lives. its just not as obvious as an upfront cash payment.
international students dont feed our economy for life. they should have to pay extra for the privilege of coming to our schools, and they should not get special privileges. they should not get any government funding. their fees should cover the full cost of their education. we are doing them a favor, not the opposite.
Here is an excerpt from the act: to correct the conditions of disadvantage in employment experienced by women, aboriginal peoples, persons with disabilities and members of visible minorities by giving effect to the principle that employment equity means more than treating persons in the same way but also requires special measures and the accommodation of differences.
Someone should file a complaint.
Someone should file a complaint against people trying to play the system based on our twisted equity policies. Actually, someone has complained: the UN.
Local educational institutions have been receiving tax-funding from residents throughout their entire existences. It would be incredibly wrong on the ethical level to allow foreign students the same access, regardless of what they pay. I am speaking as a Canadian-educated immigrant on this issue.
Domestic students can get a better registration time by getting better grades. I AM a domestic student and I had the privilege of registering on June 18 (2 days before international students). So it's not as if all domestic students are at a disadvantage. I earned the right to register before everyone else. If other students work hard, they'll get the same privilege.