by Sarah Schmidt

TORONTO (CUP) — As the
mber of applications to Ontario
Iniversities continues to drop,

ose in the education sector can’t
Pem to explain the trend.
According to preliminary data
pleased by the Ontario University
pplication Centre, the number of
igh school students who have
pplied to Ontario universities for
ext September has dropped by
5% from last year.

Northern universities in particu-
ar show a significant drop in
pplicants—Thunder Bay’s
akehead University reported a
20% drop, Laurentian University in
sudbury a 15.8% drop, and
pplications to Nipissing Univer-
ity in North Bay dropped 8.6%.

Top administrators of these
Institutions cannot agree on why
lhe numbers are not only down,
but at their lowest point in nine
pears.

“T’m not sure if tuition fees make
big deal. Students may not be
ieterred because of tuition. [But]
lhey may be deterred by the panic
treated in the media about tuition
es,” said David Marshall,
president of Nipissing University.
Nipissing could become the first
iversity at which more than half

  
 
 
  
  
  
   
 
   
 
  
   
   
  
 
 
  
 
   
 
 
   
   
    
 
   
   
 
   
  
   
   
 
  
 
   
  

 

by Samer Muscati

OTTAWA (CUP) — Canadian
iniversities must attract more rich
oreign students if they want to
maintain their high quality of
pducation, top federal officials told
university and college presidents
ast week.

The government has launched a
ajor campaign to recruit foreign
tudents by easing medical criteria,
d by marketing Canada’s
ducation system abroad, Prime
inister Jean Chretien and Interna-
ional Trade Minister Art Eggleton
old a meeting of the Association of
niversities and Colleges in

anada on March 5.

“The export of educational
poods and services is big business
or Canada,” Chretien said ina
peech to the academics. “We have
jo continue to work together to
pnsure that Canada’s recruitment
bf foreign students is successful.
Dur government is stepping up its
pfforts.”

According to a recent govern-
ment study, foreign student
pxpenditures in 1994-95 contrib-
hted $2.3-billion to the Canadian
bconomy and represented about
1 000 jobs.

With universities as one of the
main beneficiaries, Eggleton says
that foreign students are a good
ay for public education institu-
ons to generate alternative
ources of revenue against a
backdrop of declining domestic
tudent enrollment and budgetary
tbacks. The revenue would help
bffset the $7-billion in federal cuts
o social transfer payments for the
provinces, earmarked in large part
lor education.

News

of its revenue, 52%, comes from
tuition fees if the president's
recommendation to increase
tuition fees by ten percent is
passed by their board of governors
at an upcoming meeting.

But Robert Rosehart, president
of Lakehead University, says it
would be irresponsible to ignore
tuition fee hikes as a key variable.

“1 can’t ignore the fact that the
difference from last year to this
year is a 20% increase in tuition
fees,” said Rosehart. “20% in one
year is pretty traumatic.”

The 20% fee increase for the
1996-97 school year marked the
largest single-year increase ever in
Ontario.

While Rosehart sees a link
between tuition and applications,
many people involved in post
secondry education say there is no
positive proof that higher tuition
fees make universities unaccessi-
ble. :

One study into the relationship,
conducted by York University
between 1991 and 1994, linked
rising tuition fees to the significant
decline in undergraduate students
from low-income families.

In 1991, an estimated 17% of
York undergraduates came from
families whose income was less
than $20 000. By the 1994-95

As part of the initiatives, the
government will try to make
Canadian universities more
competitive with those in Aus-
tralia, Britain, France and the
United States by modifying
medical procedures on student
visas. A pilot project beginning in
Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia
and Mexico will streamline
medical examinations so that
students examined in their own
country of origin will no longer
require a Canadian test.

Eggleton says the government is
also exploring the possibility of
establishing new education
resource centres abroad to promote
Canada’s education system and
recruit students. The new centres
would be based in the Arabian
Peninsula, South Africa, Columbia,
Russia, the United States and
Germany.

Canada has already opened
seven centres in major Asian
capitals, and will open three new
ones later this year in India, China
and Mexico.

“While Canada is holding its
own in the international education
marketplace in places where we
market effectively, there is a
widespread view that we could be
doing much more,” said Eggleton.

“The market is not, however,
sitting waiting for us. We need to
hone our marketing skills and
move with a sense of urgency. We
face fierce competition.”

And to determine how education
providers and government can best
work together in marketing
Canada’s education system, the
government is organizing two
national conferences in May to
form joint strategies. The govern-

Drop in applicants a mystery

Dntario universities fretting

academic year, the number had
dropped to ten percent, the study
shows.

Nevertheless, Greg Marcotte,
executive director of the applica-
tion centre, says it is too early to
discern a negative trend or con-
clude that economics are at play.

“Nobody has done any empirical
research to say there’s a correla-
tion. There’s no evidence, anecdo-
tal or empirical, so I can’t confirm
it or deny,” said Marcotte, pointing
to demographic trends, some
students delaying entrance to
university so they can work to
finance their education and others
entering the less-expensive college
system to explain the decline.

But Coline Gardhouse, a guid- -
ance counsellor at Riverdale
Collegiate, a high school in a
working-class neighbourhood in
Toronto, says students are aware of
rising fees and do not apply to
university as a result.

“They're scared of them.” said
Gardhouse. “We see it here. The
kids of the unemployed or the
working poor are just not going or
they’re delaying it.... We’re saying,
‘As long as you have the money,
you can come to university.’ That is
wrong.” @

oing for the overseas gold

oreign students bring in the bucks to university coffers

ment will also be training new
foreign officers to promote Cana-
dian education interests abroad,
and is helping to develop a CD-
ROM with Internet capabilities
containing information on over 80
schools with audio and visual
campus tours.

Steve Wilson, chairperson for the
National Graduate Council; a
group representing graduate
students, says he is concerned the
new government initiatives view
foreign students simply as com-
modities.

He says that in the past, foreign
students used to be recruited to
“improve the scholarly environ-
ment at universities,” but these
days they are seen as merely a
“cash-grab” to bankroll Canada’s
financially strapped and deterio-
rating universities and colleges.

Foreign students can pay as high
as $18 000 each year for an engi-
neering degree at the University of
Waterloo and $10 600 for any
undergraduate degree at York
University, while the average
university tuition fee last year for
Canadian students was $2700.

“We're not attempting to attract
the brightest students, but only
those who can afford to pay,” said
Wilson. “We're looking toward
international students to solve the
fiscal problems of our education
system.”

The new initiatives follow the
January “Team Canada” trade
mission to Asia where representa-
tives of 50 Canadian educational
institutions travelled abroad to
promote the countries educational
system. After the business sector,
education was the second largest
group in the delegation. »

 

 

Bruce is back!

 

by Douglas Whitlow

he week began with War

Chief Ernie still on the

stand. Ernie continued
where he had left off on Friday,
and attempted to apologize to the
defendants for becoming an
informant. He told the court he
had a family to support and was
just looking out for himself.

Once again, the former War Chief
appeared extremely nervous as he
was questioned regarding the
evidence he had supplied to the
police. When asked if he had
carried a weapon while in the
camp, he said he probably did. He
then went on to say that he had
indeed carried one, but only to
protect himself.

Ernie’s poor command of the
English language had everyone in
the visitors’ gallery breaking into
loud bursts of laughter, whereupon
the deputies ordered them to “keep
it down.”

The main topic of discussion
throughout the week was “When is
Bruce Clark coming?” Finally, on
Thursday the ex-lawyer and present
prison inmate appeared as a
witness for the defense. While
staying in Surrey, Clark will bea
guest at the Surrey Pre-trial Center
along with Ignace and Pitawan
Akwat. The “knowledgeable” Clark
will not be able to address the jury
on any legal matters or other points
of law and must refer only to
matters that were discussed by him
and his former clients before or
during the standoff.

Once the bald-headed and
outrageously bespectacled Clark

 

took the witness stand, he immedi-
ately began a long and boring tirade
on what a great lawyer and law
student he had once been. He went
on to explain how the native people
of Canada were incapable of
addressing their land claims
themselves and how only he could
do this for them. This is exactly
what the old Colonial Powers told
First Nations people for centuries
and now Mr. Clark has assumed the
role of an Indian Agent to continue
the work that his British predeces-
sors started hundreds of years ago.

In other news, BC Attorney
General Ujjal Dosanjh’s lawyers
successfully argued that his
presence was not required at the
trial. This did not surprise anyone,
but many people present are now
convinced that there is a double
standard in the court system
whereby a select group of officials
are exempt from the law.

George Wool and his clients
ended their defense proceedings by
calling two expert witnesses to the
stand on behalf of Joseph Ignace.
The two women, Dr. Christine
Loock and Dr. Julianne Conry, are
specialists in the field of Fetal
Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and other
diseases of the brain. They both
described Joseph Ignace as being
the worst case of FAS they have
ever examined and said he has the
mental capacity of a six-year old
boy. They went on to say that he is
incapable of making rational
decisions and often concocts untrue
stories which he believes are true.
Joseph is charged with attempted
murder and weapons offenses.

Are yOu a
starving
student?

The Other

 

 

 

 

 

The Other Press March 10,1997 3