9 replies to this topic

[thecapo]

So I just love spam topics it seems. Post-Secondary schools have been getting budget cuts this year 7.2% roughly. As well the local government went and did a freeze on tuition so that the cuts would not affect the student. The schools can still up tuition for those coming from outside canada(international students).

 

These cuts made the Faculty of Science loose about 600 students for each new year. They have a limit of 6,100 students a year now instead of 6,700. They also chose to raise the admission average for high school students from an 85% to about a 92% to get in. As far as I am aware this is the highest in all of Canada. They give these spots to the international students since the international student pays about 5 times the cost to go here than the Canadian citizen(out of province pays a little more than the normal cost of tuition).

 

The government also wants schools to not allow students to study areas that are not needed in Canadian workplace(Philosophy degrees where part of the argument being useless)

 

My question is do you think with the budget cuts they should not raise the average but decrease international student spots? We currently have about 4,800 international students a year coming in to fill these spots. Yes, they help fund the school but is more than 50% being non-citizen a good thing? Furthermore, is it racist to cut those international spots?

 

Well thats my little corner of the world news. You dont have to stick to Canada for budget cuts stuff just figured good starting point.

 

Oh and if anyone is interested to know about the Arts programs I believe it was about 200 programs got cut! They did get the worst of it.

 

Edit: only 20 Arts programs got cut. 200 classes for arts cut as well. Thought that number was high. We are also 57 million over budget.

[Montosh]

Thanks to our conservative government.

 

I don't know where you are, here in Quebec i'm worried about the PQ government adding to the already restrictive language laws and banning all religious symbols in public places(the crucifix in the National Assemble is exempt, of course)

 

So government sucks, all around...

[Isolationist]

Just as a detail person, your question about being racist is probably the wrong choice of word. I think you mean to use "Nationalistic." Particularly if you consider the fact that a U.S. student would be an "international" student, but that they could be from an enormous variety of races.

 

More to the point, I agree, I think there should be a certain quota, say 60%, of seats reserved for students of that country, or even province. I know that here in the States, many schools do this and show preferencial treatment towards student of their own state, such as University of Virginia (UVA) where if you and another student are equal in every aspect, but the other student is a Viriginia resident and you are out-of-state, then they will recieve that seat 100% of the time. Sucks if you want to go to that school, but it does make sense. Just my two cents.

[thecapo]

International students where I am from are all Chinese. They released a number and about 95% of international students are from Asia. Nationalistic does sound better. In Canada it is difficult to get in to any Univ.

[Icewolf]

International students are a good way for universities to make money. The trouble is that Universities are not necessarily so keen on ensuring that the exam grades those students use to get in where obtained fairly, or that the standard of the local language those students have is sufficient to keep up with the course. This creates an issue for those students who are on seminar focused courses where teaching then gets slowed down to deal with the fact that there are people present who are simply not able to maintain the pace of the course. 

 

I have seen several occasions where people from overseas universities have essentially been far far below the grade required to study at the level they are studying, presumably either because their home institution is somewhat less rigorous or because they had cheated on exams. I have then seen students essentially give up in despair after struggling to do group work with a person who quite simply could not manage.

 

As for cutting courses like philosophy, I have seen how much work those students do and I have dealt with their arrogance.  Why should the state pay for someone to work 1 day a week and booze 6 days a week whilst strutting around insisting that they are one of the few enlightened ones?

[thecapo]

International students are a good way for universities to make money. The trouble is that Universities are not necessarily so keen on ensuring that the exam grades those students use to get in where obtained fairly, or that the standard of the local language those students have is sufficient to keep up with the course. This creates an issue for those students who are on seminar focused courses where teaching then gets slowed down to deal with the fact that there are people present who are simply not able to maintain the pace of the course. 

 

I have seen several occasions where people from overseas universities have essentially been far far below the grade required to study at the level they are studying, presumably either because their home institution is somewhat less rigorous or because they had cheated on exams. I have then seen students essentially give up in despair after struggling to do group work with a person who quite simply could not manage.

 

As for cutting courses like philosophy, I have seen how much work those students do and I have dealt with their arrogance.  Why should the state pay for someone to work 1 day a week and booze 6 days a week whilst strutting around insisting that they are one of the few enlightened ones?

Yes being someone who is in the top of my program with many international students, I have seen some who have less then the average continue on. Here the average is a 2.0 over your last two terms. So each year as long as you have 2.0 average between the both semesters your good to go. 2.0 = C average here. If you have a 1.7 to a 1.9 your placed on marginal (C- average is a 1.7) meaning that if you cant get a 2.0 by end of next year your kicked out. Though to get your degree you need C+ in all courses in your major. For me i need a B- average in all my major courses and i need a C+ average to continue on. I want to do masters after though which is a B average. The best part about masters here is so many are international students every masters student as to take an English Second Language exam to see if you can go into masters. Shows how are Govt is paying for masters yet really its only international students going into them.

[Big Ego]

There is nothing wrong with a little nationalism. It would make perfect sense for the number of international students to be limited. A country should look after the interests of it's own citizens first and foremost.

This is sad, because the money the University makes is temporary, and in the long run having uneducated masses (at home no less) could be very costly. Definitely a cause for concern.

[thecapo]

 

 

International students are a good way for universities to make money. The trouble is that Universities are not necessarily so keen on ensuring that the exam grades those students use to get in where obtained fairly, or that the standard of the local language those students have is sufficient to keep up with the course. This creates an issue for those students who are on seminar focused courses where teaching then gets slowed down to deal with the fact that there are people present who are simply not able to maintain the pace of the course. 

 

I have seen several occasions where people from overseas universities have essentially been far far below the grade required to study at the level they are studying, presumably either because their home institution is somewhat less rigorous or because they had cheated on exams. I have then seen students essentially give up in despair after struggling to do group work with a person who quite simply could not manage.

 

As for cutting courses like philosophy, I have seen how much work those students do and I have dealt with their arrogance.  Why should the state pay for someone to work 1 day a week and booze 6 days a week whilst strutting around insisting that they are one of the few enlightened ones?

Yes being someone who is in the top of my program with many international students, I have seen some who have less then the average continue on. Here the average is a 2.0 over your last two terms. So each year as long as you have 2.0 average between the both semesters your good to go. 2.0 = C average here. If you have a 1.7 to a 1.9 your placed on marginal (C- average is a 1.7) meaning that if you cant get a 2.0 by end of next year your kicked out. Though to get your degree you need C+ in all courses in your major. For me i need a B- average in all my major courses and i need a C+ average to continue on. I want to do masters after though which is a B average. The best part about masters here is so many are international students every masters student as to take an English Second Language exam to see if you can go into masters. Shows how are Govt is paying for masters yet really its only international students going into them.

 

 

 

 

what degree are you going for?

 

Im in Computer Science.