How a cap on foreign students could hurt one Ontario college

There’s nothing atypical about the hustle and bustle at the Sheridan College site nestled near a busy intersection in southern Brampton, but dark clouds are hovering over this vibrant school community.

They’re a result of recent changes made by federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller to restore the integrity of Canada’s international education program, which he said has been abused by some postsecondary institutions acting like “puppy mills” that churn out diplomas atop “massage parlours,” fanned by unscrupulous agents promoting them as an immigration scheme.

They have also reported financial hardship and mental health issues, because they rely on their employment in Canada to support themselves and their families back home, who sometimes have to sell their land or take out loans to support students’ education here.

Sheridan has tried to find a health balance when it comes to international students. However, in the wake of the new changes, suddenly at risk are its years of growth in enrolment and international tuition revenues, investments in new facilities and courses, the pipeline to pump out graduates to fill local labour market needs, as well as a diverse learning environment.

Also in jeopardy is the college’s fledgling partnership with a private college to deliver skilled trades training in Fort Erie, the first such public-private college partnership outside of GTA in Ontario. 

“We are now contemplating our very existence,” said Sheridan College president and vice-chancellor Janet Morrison. “After a half-century of contributing and engaging and partnering and delivering, we are contemplating catastrophic impact.”

The number of study permit holders in Canada has tripled in the past decade, from 300,000 in 2013 to 900,000 last year, fuelled by aggressive recruiting by the post-secondary education sector and by unregulated foreign agents. Canada’s highly valued international education program has gradually eroded to what Miller called a “backdoor entry” for permanent residence.

Sheridan had seen these dark clouds coming. A few years ago, it started limiting the school’s international student growth and investing in building capacity to support them through programs in housing, food security, mental health, peer mentoring and entrance scholarships.

“If your North Star is academic quality and student experience, we made the right decisions at the right time,” said Morrison. “We’ve now recalibrated. And part of what we’re challenged by the (immigration minister’s) announcement in its current understanding is that we’ve done all of this work, but it doesn’t necessarily differentiate or acknowledge that work.”

Established in 1967, Sheridan College had a humble beginning in Brampton at a converted public high school that had previously been condemned. Three years later, the campus moved to a brand-new location at Trafalgar Road and Upper Middle Road East in Oakville.

An anchor post-secondary institution serving Peel Region, it opened its Brampton site near Steeles Avenue West and McLaughlin Road in 1977, offering programs in advanced manufacturing, trades and health professions. In 2011, another campus was built near the Square One Shopping Mall in Mississauga, where business-related programs are delivered.

In late 2000s, Sheridan joined a federal government initiative with other Canadian public colleges to facilitate the processing and approval of study permits. In 2010, international students accounted for less than 10 per cent of the school’s 16,440 total enrolment.

Under the six-year tenure of then president Jeff Zabudsky, international enrolment rose from 1,510 to 6,261 students or 28 per cent of the total enrolment in 2016-17.

But then the school administration began hearing grumblings from the community about the pressure of the surge of international students on the housing stock as well as other issues such as physical and mental health and food insecurity faced by the students.

“When I got here (in 2016), it was like, ‘Well, we’re popular. We have a market for this,’ which I think is easy to say in the moment,” recalled Morrison, who took the helm at Sheridan in 2018. But when “the community is saying, ‘Whoa, we can’t yet figure this out,’ the integrity of the organization is paramount here. What do we need to do?” 

The college decided to put any further international enrolment growth on hold while building bridges to seek solutions with students, community organizations and faith groups. In addition to its 1,200 beds in residence in Oakville and Brampton, it has partnered with others to build a homestay network and shared spaces, and is exploring master leasing to secure safe housing for students. It has also rolled out food security programs on campuses.

While all of Ontario’s 24 public colleges ran in the red due to enrolment declines and additional expenses during the pandemic, Morrison said Sheridan was the only one that reported a deficit last year, at $3 million, as a result of its “responsible growth” approach. 

Alper Ozdogan was happy that he didn’t have to scramble to secure housing when he arrived at Sheridan from Turkey in January 2023. The two-bedroom apartment on campus that he shares with three other students only costs him $490 a month, though he has to share a bunk bed. He has also managed to find a couple of part-time jobs on campus to help pay for his expenses on top of a yearly tuition fee of $18,000.

“The school has programs like tutoring when there have been times that I was not able to understand something going on in the class,” said the 20-year-old, who regularly receives information from the college, such as on housing and regulatory changes for international students like those recently announced by Miller.

“They have an international (immigration) law office and free mental health support. All of these focus on what students need.”

Ozdogan said he chose a college program because university studies are much tougher and he would rather gain some hands-on experience learning about chemical engineering technology through the co-op program that Sheridan offers. 

Between 2018 and 2023, said Morrison, the school’s international enrolment grew by only six per cent. In 2022-23, international students accounted for 39 per cent of the overall enrolment, compared to the college system’s average 55 per cent; Sheridan is expected to reach 46 per cent this current school year, including those students attending the Fort Erie private college campus.

Following the immigration minister’s announcement in January, Morrison said Sheridan’s call centre was inundated by inquiries from incoming and current students, as well as local employers, who count on the students and graduates to fill jobs.

The May student intake, which accounts for 20 to 25 per cent of Sheridan’s yearly admission, is already in jeopardy after the processing of new study permit applications was halted after Jan. 22, until provinces come up with a process to issue the newly required provincial attestation letter to vouch for the legitimacy of the applicants.

“There’s now a moratorium on visa processing,” she said. “Some of the students are stuck. They’re not sure what they should be doing. Some are already hedging their bets and decide, ‘OK, I’m going to submit applications elsewhere, where there’s a little bit more certainty.’

“There are programs at risk. We are anticipating making difficult decisions about which programs we can continue to offer and how we scale down pretty quickly.”

That’s distressing news for Fort Erie Mayor Wayne Redekop, whose town is in growth mode and, like some smaller communities, struggling with labour and skills shortages. He said Sheridan and Canadian College of Technology and Trades have worked closely with the town to ensure it had the capacity to house international students.

The inaugural cohort of 700 students who started at the 18-acre Fort Erie campus last year were accommodated through short-term housing solutions in the region, with some sharing a “quad room” for $850 a month that includes room, meal plan and utilities. The community is also working together to identify areas that can be used to build new residences.

“I’m very pleased to say that Sheridan takes a very responsible approach to this,” said Redekop. “They’re just not putting themselves in a position where they can’t accommodate the students that they’re wanting to train.”

While there are abuses within the international education system, Redekop said Ottawa’s broad-brush approach would jeopardize the school in his community that had planned to grow and expand into training personal support workers, who are desperately needed in an aging population.

“They’re in a community that really wants them to be here and supports the work that they’re doing and understands the importance of making sure that we have the skilled trades available for our society to function,” Redekop said.

And those challenges for skilled workers also ring true to Joan Berger of A Berger Precision Ltd., an advanced manufacturing company in Brampton that produces complex metal parts used in automobiles and air crafts.

Berger said the growing company has invested in technology to boost efficiency but the expensive machines still require operators that are knowledgeable and skilled. The firm has hired paid co-op students from the University of Waterloo’s engineering program and from Sheridan’s quality assurance program as a short-term solution.

“They do complement each other in a manufacturing facility like ours,” said Berger, whose company has been in Brampton for more than 40 years.

“I don’t know if there’s one solution because there is a labour issue. I’m sorry. There is. And we are growing. If I could only hire Canadians that fit the bill every single time and I had so many to choose from, then great, and I wouldn’t have to hire international students from Sheridan working for us. But that’s not the case.”

Also in jeopardy is the multicultural and international learning environment that Paige Richardson, a native of nearby Georgetown, has grown used to after she started her business administration and human resources program at Sheridan a year ago.

The 20-year-old fifth-generation Canadian said she’s become more open and aware of the diversity of perspectives and experiences that her international student friends have brought to the table, which has made life more interesting in spite of her small-town upbringing.

While she, too, is juggling between two jobs and school to pay for her tuition and living, Richardson said international students don’t take away jobs or seats in the classroom from Canadians.

“They’re just trying to get a good education, a good life. And it’s not their fault. They had the opportunity, so they took it,” said Richardson, who now counts Filipinos, Indians, Colombians, Nigerians and Pakistanis among her friends. “I don’t see the problem. If I was in their place, I probably would do the same thing.”

The photo caption accompanying this article was edited from a previous version that misspelled student Paige Richardson’s surname.