This is part 2 of a 2-part story looking at the challenges international students face at Camosun College. Part 1 featured international students talking about their concerns.
Camosun International manager of student services Gulcan Barclay says that the college has been talking with international insurance providers GuardMe about the possibility to extend the three-month period that international students are registered for health insurance. This would give students more time to transition to the provincial government’s health-care insurance.
“We start reminding them, ‘As soon as you arrive you need to apply for MSP, you don’t need to wait three months, just apply for MSP and when you’re eligible they’re going to send the documentation,’ because we don’t want them having a break between so the [GuardMe] expires and they haven’t applied for MSP. We really want that transition to be seamless,” says Barclay. “We’re trying to improve that communication so that students know about it, and we’ve been talking with GuardMe for maybe the possibility to extend that duration so it gives them more time to transition to MSP.We really want them to be safe and covered.”
Barclay says that it’s impossible to bundle the MSP charges into the student fees and stresses that students need to apply for their own MSP.
“That’s their responsibility to apply for MSP, because we cannot apply on their behalf,” she says. “If we could, we would have done that, but we can’t charge for it, that’s for government. It has nothing to do with Camosun and the fees we’re collecting.”
As far as extended support for international students throughout the semester—a concern I heard from students—Barclay says that the college is here to help the students.
“Anything they can think about—and there’s no stupid question—we are always here to support them,” she says.
Barclay says that there are lots of services available for those who seek them out.
“There’s academic support, help centers, advising, counselling… We try to reach out to students, but until they come, it’s really hard to figure out what they are going through,” she says.
Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) international director Melaniia Frolova is interested in the idea of implementing more orientation programs throughout the semester.
“We are thinking about it now,” she says. “We think it’s possible, because we have a lot of people who are interested in it. I think it just depends on suggestions; if I suggest it to my team, I hope that they support me.”
Frolova says that students who feel like they haven’t gotten enough from Camosun’s international student orientation should try to connect with a Camosun counsellor.
“For me, my counsellor helped more than orientation,” she says. “I think it’s a good way to solve this problem, if all international students have a good counsellor who can help students solve all their problems.”
Barclay says that there is a possibility for the college to hold more orientation events throughout the term.
“Absolutely, especially because students usually have a lot of study permit, work permit questions, we are working on expanding those for workshops,” says Barclay. “We do housing workshops when Immigration [Refugees and Citizenship] Canada comes; we invite students to come to those. We do registration workshops in case students don’t know how to register. One issue with that is that students—it depends on if the students at that point are interested in that specific subject—usually don’t come. So we can say, ‘This is the day we’re going to talk about this subject,’ you see maybe two or three students coming, but it’s not like big crowds showing up. I think it’s tough to get the interest sometimes… If they approach us—for example, we had a student who said ‘I’m from Mexico, I want to do something about the Day of the Dead’—we’re happy to support them to put the event on. There’s always room for improvement, absolutely.”
The social chasm between domestic and international students was discussed in our previous article, and Barclay agrees that that’s one of the biggest issues international students face.
“We have a Peer Connections group,” she says. “Mostly international students come, but we have domestic students, so that provides opportunities to connect with each other and the community.”
However, Barclay says that even when domestic students express interest in reaching out, international students often tend to stick with their peers.
“It’s more comfortable, safer for them maybe, so it’s very challenging for domestic students to break that,” she says. “It goes both ways.”
Frolova agrees that integration between domestic and international students is a common problem and says that a possible solution would be to have more activities that are of interest to both domestic and international students, providing more opportunities for natural interaction between the two demographics.
“Maybe it will be good to organize more activities for all students, because, for example, my country, we have a lot of activities for all students, more than we have here, unfortunately,” she says. “It’s one of the big differences in my country’s organization and the organization here, because students here just don’t communicate with each other.”
Frolova believes that finding common experiences and shared interests between students is a good way to narrow the communication barrier.
“I think it’s also better if you have not clubs but opportunities to communicate maybe in other points, not only in languages,” she says. “Also, it will be good to find some things that are common for everybody.”
Frolova says that the CCSS is starting to look into expanding social opportunities for international students.
“In comparison to my country, there are not so many activities and supports, and I hope we will develop that in a short time, but truthfully, I don’t think that it’s good now. But it’s good that we understand it and we try to solve this problem,” she says. “We could organize more opportunities for communication, to try to organize more social projects to pay attention to problems which are common for all students and try to solve it in different ways.”
Perhaps the biggest challenge for foreign students is the communication barrier.
“Well, I think you need a little bit of time in the culture,” says Barclay. “It will come slowly—you need to be here a while and experience it to get that knowledge.”
The most common grievance we heard from students was that tuition costs are so much higher for international students, but Barclay says that the situation is not so black and white. She points out that there are invisible costs—in the form of taxes—for local students. Additionally, tuition for domestic students is largely subsidized by the government, which is a benefit not available to international students.
“If you’re a domestic student, you pay taxes, so your education is funded through that,” she says, “but international students are not taxpayers.”
A related complaint is that international tuition is charged on a per-semester, rather than a per-credit, basis, so that an international student will pay the same amount regardless of whether they enrol in three, four, or five courses in a semester, which may be perceived as unfair. Barclay says she understands how students could be frustrated but looks at the fee structure in a different way.
“I think the price is set for three, four courses, so they are kind of getting an extra course for free,” Barclay says. “But I understand frustration from the student’s perspective.”
Frolova recommends that international students who are frustrated with high tuition fees consider the bigger picture with regard to the enhanced opportunities that studying in Canada provides.
“I like Canada and I think it’s one of the countries that provides more opportunities,” she says. “For example, when we become domestic students—when we become residents after two years—we get a lot of opportunities compared to other countries.”
Frolova regrets that more students don’t know about the CCSS and what it provides, and thinks that there could be more opportunities for students to become familiar with the student society and to volunteer in a wide variety of ways.
“I will be glad if more students will be involved in our opportunities, because in my country, it’s more like volunteering, everybody can take part and engage in opportunities—it could be open for more people who want to join us, it would be really good,” she says. “Like, for example, with [CCSS] elections this year, not everybody knows about the CCSS and what is that actually and what do we do. This [is] something like a secret now, but I will be glad if everybody knows about us and what we do and will be glad to join whenever they want, not only when we need it.”
Barclay says that she and her colleagues really do empathize with international students’ struggle.
“We care for them, you know? We’ve all travelled the roads, we are mostly coming from other countries ourselves,” she says. “We are previous students, so we really understand what they are going through. So the aim is to support them; if there is a need, we would like to be able to assist them.”