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Some students frustrated by misleading claims by education agents abroad, along with the private training institutions in B.C.

Some students frustrated by misleading claims by education agents abroad and the private training institutions in B.C. that create self-serving “internal policies” to block their demands for education standards, refunds or transcripts. Photo by FotoDuets /Getty Images/iStockphoto

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Dupinder Singh moved to Canada in 2018 with dreams of obtaining a postgraduate diploma.

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But his Canadian college experience turned sour when, after deciding to transfer schools, he was asked to pay thousands of dollars for transcripts. To make matters worse, the education agent in India that he had paid for help stopped taking his calls.

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Singh is among the 25 per cent of international students studying in Canada who are estimated to have used agents to help navigate Canada’s education system. Students from India are most likely to have paid large fees for agents, but there is little accountability, often leading to exploitation and disappointment.

When Singh arrived at the Pacific Link College campus in a Surrey, he was taken aback.

“There were just three or four rooms and a reception, basically more of a business setup and not an education setup.”

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He was surprised to discover the college was a designated “private training institution” and that his diploma might not be as valuable to employers as a diploma from a larger, public institution or a private, degree-granting institution. He said the Right Way Immigration agency back in Mohali, in India’s Punjab state, had not informed him of this, despite pushing him to attend Pacific Link College.

In March 2019, after just two semesters in digital media studies management science at Pacific Link, Singh decided to transfer to Coquitlam College, a degree-granting private institution.

“I wanted something that would help me in the future that would be valuable in many sectors, so I chose not to continue my studies” at Pacific Link.

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Singh said he had paid $10,500 in tuition to Pacific Link College for the classes he’d attended, and he wanted his transcripts. But the college told him that to get the documents, he would have to pay at least $6,000.

“I emailed them, ‘Just send me the legal stuff, whatever you have to calculate how much I legally owe in fees, I will pay for it,’” said Singh.

He became increasingly apprehensive when, in another email, the college said Singh owed $9,650.

“If you are talking on behalf of legal stuff and calculating my fees that arise, there should be a set fee that is received. It cannot be changed every time,” he said.

Pacific Link College’s email said if he did not pay the $9,650, the “balance will be referred to the collections agency, and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada will be notified of the student’s status.”

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Singh became desperate.

“I reached out to my family from India, and then to the (agency) office to talk about it.”

Right Way Immigration promised to talk to the college, he said, “but after two or three calls, they simply refused that, (saying) ‘It has nothing to do with us, it’s a college policy.’”

Then the agency stopped returning his calls.

According to The Indian Express newspaper, Right Way Immigration was one of four Mohali immigration agencies that had their licences revoked in 2022 by the district government after complaints by students.

Feeling helpless, Singh turned to Jagrup Brar, NDP MLA for Surrey-Fleetwood. Brar’s office reviewed his case and concluded Pacific Link College had no authority to compel him to pay for transcripts.

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Calls for more oversight

Brar referred Singh to One Voice Canada Foundation, an organization founded in 2019 that grew out of an awareness that many international students faced exploitation and mistreatment by some training institutes, education agents, employers and landlords.

Dupinder Kaur Saran of One Voice Foundation. Photo by Arlen Redekop /PNG

Dupinder Kaur Saran helped found One Voice.

“A lot of students come here whose parents or grandparents owned land, and they put these lands on loan or they sold their land just so the child can come here, because it costs a lot of money for them to even travel and be in a different country,” Saran said.

Students from villages or smaller districts have no awareness of what they’re getting into when they come to a different country, she said.

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“They are the ones that are the bigger targets for exploitation.”

Since its founding, One Voice has helped thousands of students with a variety of challenges, she said.

Saran, a nurse, volunteers for One Voice. Other volunteers include nurses, counsellors, lawyers working pro bono, police officers and immigration consultants.

Saran arranged a meeting in 2019 with Pacific Link’s then-vice-president, Tarun Khullar, and Singh. Khullar is now Pacific Link’s CEO.

When Saran asked to be shown the policy requiring tuition upfront for an entire program, she was handed a large policy book to look through. She refused to comb through it and insisted on being shown the specific page with the relevant policy. The college was unable to show Singh had to pay for courses he had not taken. Within 30 minutes, Singh walked out of Pacific Link College a final time, transcripts in hand, without paying any additional fees.

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Khullar refused to be interviewed. An emailed statement said: “PLC highly respects students and their rights. PLC follows its policies as mentioned in the enrolment contracts and expects students to follow and respect these same policies mentioned in the contracts they sign.”

Pressed for comment, they sent an additional statement: “In some cases based on need, PLC does release documents to students without fees stated in the policies, again depending on student need.”

Saran said the case is typical.

International students “get charged an arm and a leg. … They’re given big dreams and promises. They were given this story that ‘you’re going to be going to this proper college, and you’re going to be able to fulfil your education dreams and get the career that you need, and then you’ll be living a wonderful life in Canada.’”

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She said there should be additional oversight and regulation of private colleges.

“​​These colleges should have somebody that they need to report back to, and audits be done, certain things like a governing college above these private colleges, who people can actually turn to and then notify if there is something being done when they’re being exploited.”

Canadian education and immigration agents must register with the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants or a Canadian law society to legally offer Canadian immigration advice for a fee. But agents abroad are outside of Canadian jurisdiction and don’t have to register.

Saran said international students, including many from India and Singh’s own home province of Punjab, consult education agents and fees often range from $1,600 to $4,800, but can be even higher as there are no set fees.

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She said there are two sources of frustration for students: Agents who misrepresent the schools they work with and who funnel students to specific schools in exchange for fees, and Canadian post-secondary institutions that capitalize on lax regulations around agents.

Partnerships are common between agents and schools in which the school pays a commission for every international tuition secured. While not employees of the colleges, the agents act as de facto recruiters.

Colleges in Canada benefit because international students pay significantly higher tuition than domestic students. For example, the digital media studies management science program at Pacific Link College was $22,486 for international students and $13,986 for domestic students.

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Use of agents is fraught

In Canada, many institutions use agents to attract international students. Post-secondary institutions such as the University of Northern British Columbia, Langara College and the University of Victoria, to name a few, have partnerships with agents who are paid commissions.

Degree-granting institutions like these typically vet the agents to protect students. Information obtained through a freedom of information request showed Langara, for example, receives more than $70 million in international student tuition yearly, and pays more than $2 million to agents, or around three per cent of all international tuition.

The use of agents is so problematic that some universities have established policies to protect students from unscrupulous agents.

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According to B.C.’s Advanced Education Ministry, the number of international students studying here increased to 184,350 in 2021 from 100,965 in 2013. B.C. gets about 22 per cent of all international students in Canada. At public colleges and universities, international students make up an average of 19 per cent of the student body, but at smaller, private schools, the percentage can be much higher.

In B.C., students from India are the most common at 34 per cent of all international students, followed by Chinese students at 18 per cent. As international student populations have increased, so too have the number of small institutions. Over the past 10 years, at least 160 new institutions received B.C. education quality assurance designations as post-secondary institutions. To be eligible for the designation, an institution must undergo a ministry review.

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The ministry said that students who have complaints are expected to first follow their institution’s internal complaint policies. If still unsatisfied, students can report their concerns to provincial regulatory bodies.

B.C.’s degree quality assessment board secretariat deals with complaints about degree-granting institutions and each issue is judged according to the institution’s own policies.

If an institution is found to be in violation of its own policies, the ministry can order a formal meeting with the institution, which may lead to an order to change its policies and procedures as a condition of continuing to be allowed to issue degrees or diplomas.

From June 2021 to June 2022, 39 complaints from domestic and international students were received, 12 about public institutions and 27 about private institutions. Eight were found to have merit and the ministry contacted the institution to resolve the complaint.

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The private training institutions branch regulates institutions that do not offer degrees, but are designated career training institutions. If such an institution is found to be in violation of its own policies, a student’s only recourse is to apply for a tuition refund. This branch received 18 applications for tuition refunds in the last year and ordered refunds in 13 of those cases.

In the past year, only five private institutions lost their permission to have international students after either closing down or failing to adhere to the Private Institutions Act. Institutions are reviewed annually to determine whether they are in compliance with the act.

Don’t know their rights

While the province relies on complaints to regulate institutions, One Voice’s Saran says many students are unaware of the complaint resolution process. They are unable to get a resolution when they rely on institutions to resolve complaints internally. And many either create self-serving “internal policies” or claim they have such policies in order to block students’ demands for education standards, refunds or transcripts.

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Anne Kang, the minister of advanced education, declined to be interviewed about what has been identified by advocates such as Saran as a need for more regulation and accountability of education agents.

The ministry said in a statement that it is trying to increase awareness among international students of the laws and regulations: “Making sure all students know and understand their rights is an ongoing effort with every new school year and term.”

Information obtained under a freedom of information request from the ministry about education agents shows how difficult it is for international students.

In several emails sent to the ministry in late 2020, an international student whose name was redacted said an Indian education agency, Bittrack Consultants Pvt. Ltd, handled their application to North Island College in Courtenay. The student paid the agency an estimated $16,000 for tuition, but then had their travel visa revoked by Canada during the COVID-19 lockdown. The student was unable to get a refund and missed a deadline for refunds, despite pleas to the agency and the college for help.

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North Island College refused requests for an interview, and Bittrack Consultants hung up when contacted by phone.

Singh had more luck. Following the intervention by Saran, he was accepted into Coquitlam College, where he said he received a quality education. He now works in Prince Edward Island.

Singh had advice for prospective international students.

“If you’re discussing college for yourself, your future studies, make sure that you do your own research without just taking in what other people are telling you. It’s all about money for the agents and all about money for some colleges.”

Graham Abraham is a 2022 recipient of the Langara College Read–Mercer Journalism Fellowship. This feature was produced through the Fellowship.

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Factbox

Policies to protect students

B.C. major public universities have various policies designed to protect international students from unscrupulous agents

Simon Fraser University: SFU does not work with agents or pay commissions to agents. SFU registrar Tom Nault said in an emailed statement: “SFU is not currently working with agents to support our recruitment strategy for international students. The university has a team of advisers and coordinators available to support students during the application and course enrolment process.”

University of British Columbia: UBC uses its own staff for international recruiting. “In some unique circumstances, where travel is difficult or access to prospective students is challenging for various reasons, (UBC) has negotiated strategic partnerships with experts within certain regions to provide assistance,” the director of university affairs, Matthew Ramsey, said by email. Such experts must meet university requirements and are reviewed at least every three years.

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At UBC, any use of agents is limited to consultants who have been vetted by UBC. Ramsey said that from September 2021 to April 2022, UBC received $633 million in international student tuition, and paid $61,000 to agents, or 0.01 per cent of all international tuition.

University of Victoria: UVic has strict requirements for agents with which it has contracts. Associate Registrar Zane Robison said in an email that contracts exist with 17 agents that have been vetted.

“Student safety is a top priority,” said Robison. “We research the agent and if we deem them credible, we meet with them in person or by Zoom. We then send the potential agent an extensive application form that must also include three references from other institutions (ideally Canadian) that have worked with that agent.”

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Robison said if agents meet a high standard, they are trained by a UVic recruiter, their offices are checked, and training continues several times per year.

University of Northern British Columbia: UNBC works with agents and pays commissions, but said by email that it acts on any complaints about agents. “If a student complains that an international agent misrepresented the immigration process, if an agent engaged in unethical behaviour or if a student alleges a breach of contract, the University would investigate. If the claim were to be substantiated, the University would take action up to and including ending the contract with the agency.”

UNBC received $4.9 million in international tuition during the 2021-22 budget year and paid approximately $125,000 to agents, about 2.5 per cent, in commissions.

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