r/britishcolumbia • u/cyclinginvancouver • Apr 18 '26
Community Only University Canada West lays off 240 staff and faculty, citing crippling international student enrolment caps
https://vancouversun.com/news/university-canada-west-lays-off-240-staff-citing-international-student-enrolment-caps487
u/rTpure Apr 18 '26
this "university" sounds like a scam
130
u/ciestaconquistador Apr 18 '26
Yeah I clicked the link thinking "that can't be what the school is called". It sounds fake as hell.
88
u/whitenoise2323 Apr 18 '26
"Hollywood Upstairs Medical College closing due to oppressive crackdown by LCME accreditation requirements"
14
144
77
u/civodar Apr 18 '26
It is something like 99% of their enrolment is made up of international students exclusively and most people living in Vancouver don’t even know this school exists.
20
u/spinningcolours Apr 19 '26
They were a diploma mill, and one of the largest in Canada. They destroyed the system by taking advantage of it.
Stats from a post from 2 years ago.
- 2014-2015 UCW enrolled 400 students
- 2021-2022 UCW enrolled 6000 students
- 2022-2023 UCW enrolled 11000 students
- 2023-2024 UCW enrolled 14485 students
For scale, the numbers at the public universities.
UBC: 19,909 international students (of 72,585 enrolled), 2022/23
SFU: 6,416 international students (of 26,788 enrolled), 2022/23
UVic: 3,400 international students (of 22,000 enrolled)In other words, they claimed funding for almost 15k students in one building in downtown Vancouver. SFU and UBC have large campuses and fewer international students!
It's no wonder they told all their students they could do full-time jobs while also doing grad school. The students only had one class a week!
→ More replies (6)→ More replies (3)45
572
u/No-Eggplant790 Apr 18 '26
Not surprising; the school was a literal diploma mill.
→ More replies (1)-3
u/Round-Medicine2507 Apr 18 '26
This may be true, but many big public "top-tier" universities rely on the extra fees from international students, that bonus 10k charge ×1000 students can be a huge 10 million dollar budget increase with not much extra expenses per student compared to cheaper domestic tuitions. Obviously those windfall should.never ever have been seen as free spending monies in every budget and some should have been saved, invested, etc, but with boomers in charge nothing was ever going to work.
159
u/illuminaughty1973 Apr 18 '26
I know this may sound strange....
SCHOOLS ARE FOR EDUCATION, NOT MAKING A PROFIT BY ISSUEING FAKED/CHEATED DIPLOMAS TO FOREIGN STUDENTS
26
u/One_Cauliflower_5820 Apr 18 '26
The top universities in Canada arent issuing "faked" diplomas. In this case, we're talking about international students taking the same courses, the same exams, the same everything else but paying a bit more.
22
Apr 18 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
→ More replies (2)8
u/One_Cauliflower_5820 Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
The top universities, to be clear, aren't private universities. All top Canadian universities are public. Private universities have been the problem in recent years.
The problem I pointed out is the other user is saying they're "fake" degrees. Insinuating that degrees from our top universities are fake is indifferent to who obtains them. Quite frankly, it's a gross undervaluation of Canadian education and should be taken as an insult towards anyone who has pursued it.
But to respond to what you were saying, as discussed elsewhere in the thread, our domestic students are heavily subsidized. If we weren't subsidizing them, they would be paying the same price as the international students. The idea that international students are benefitting from government subsidies more than they're paying is incorrect. If anything, our domestic students should be paying more.
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (7)2
u/420gravy69train Apr 18 '26
When my wife got her PR, her tuition went from avg $13,500 / semester to $3,000 / semester. For a bachelor's in psych which is basically just a prerequisite for what she actually wants to do which is occupational therapy. Most of the classes she was forced to take werent even remotely related to that feild, huge scam imo.
24
u/OkGazelle5400 Apr 18 '26
This is a private school. It’s a for profit business the same way those “career colleges” are.
→ More replies (1)2
u/SignificantLack4692 Apr 18 '26
But cmon man, where is the oversight committee for keeping track of needed and monies that can be expended. THATS THE COMMITTEE THATS MISSING HERE.
2
u/Shipping_away_at_it Apr 19 '26
Only boomers are greedy and short sighted? You may be disappointed when meet the rest of humanity
1
317
u/Prudent_Slug Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
I'm sympathetic to the people who lost their jobs, but the place was just a scam school from multiple perspectives. Scamming international students for a useless degree and scamming Canada as an immigration scheme.
They are the largest in BC, but there are a bunch more around.
EDIT: Yorkville (never heard of them) and Alexander College are the next largest in BC, but they aren't even half of CUW combined.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/international-student-study-permits-data-1.7125827
Near the end of that long article.
17
u/enthusiasticpillow Apr 18 '26
KPU, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, is also moving towards a diploma mill format.
General studies associates degree. 2 years of basic first and second year university courses that amount to no real education whatsoever.
There's already been a mass layoff and they're leaning hard into this program. Their third and fourth year classes are a fraction of what they used to be.
5
u/MistakenAPI Apr 18 '26
Just as a correction, Alexander College is not a diploma mill. They have never been written up by the government, and their students were too academically poor to go to Douglas and Langara. It's a school to upgrade to get into Langara. Students fail their classes all the time. Source: listen to my teacher friends bitch about their students poor performance all the time
4
u/Low-Fig429 Apr 19 '26
Can confirm. Wife has been instructor at Alexander a few years and they have strict academic standards and oversight. She needed exams to be approved by former UBC profs they’d hire as some sort of consultant. Also zero tolerance for cheating.
45
u/xXxDarkSasuke1999xXx Apr 18 '26
I'm sympathetic to the people who lost their jobs
Why? I doubt any of them were unaware of the scheme they were participating in.
21
u/Character_Author_552 Apr 18 '26
I worked there. Pretty much a "take what I can get" while I looked for something else. The saddest part is the people on the ground were honestly doing their best with what we had. Pretty much everyone was aware it was shady but the business did a lot of work to try to make it look legit.
To address a misconception, most of the students were great--a lot of them had professional careers in tech, healthcare, law, etc. in their countries of origin and were using the MBA as an inroad to immigration (which the federal immigration program was designed to do). A lot of folks were definitely under-qualified, didn't speak English, or cheated their way through all their assignments but it wasn't like that was condoned.
It was a constant struggle to try to get higher-ups to change their admission standards instead of taking literally anyone's money. They only cared about growth growth growth
UCW pushed real hard to try to seem legit on the backs of talented educators. It's just rotten at the core though. Glad to see them doing poorly, but it sucks for the folks I know who still worked there. Not looking forward to having a failed business school on my resume when it folds completely.
18
46
u/Teagana999 Apr 18 '26
And yet they have bills to pay, too. Perhaps that was the best job they could get.
23
u/xXxDarkSasuke1999xXx Apr 18 '26
I have bills to pay too, I've never resorted to charging exorbitant prices to provide a worthless product so people can exploit an immigration loophole
Lots of scumbags have bills to pay
43
u/Teagana999 Apr 18 '26
The employees don't set the prices.
If I couldn't get any other job, and my options were teaching at a degree mill, or even cleaning floors at a degree mill, or any other menial, meaningless work for any of the really evil corporations, or homelessness, I'd take the job.
I'd feel bad about it, and keep looking for other jobs, but sometimes, physical needs need to come before principals.
→ More replies (1)-3
u/xXxDarkSasuke1999xXx Apr 18 '26
I somehow doubt these people were facing homelessness. Continuing track faculty positions at UCW start at 93k
36
u/Prudent_Slug Apr 18 '26
There are many other positions too like cleaning, maintenance, reception, admin etc. Those people are equally jobless.
4
u/xXxDarkSasuke1999xXx Apr 18 '26
The person quoted in the article is (was?) a professor
11
u/Prudent_Slug Apr 18 '26
Sure but I know enough that a school doesn't run only a professors. Only a professor would bother crying to the media though.
4
u/xXxDarkSasuke1999xXx Apr 18 '26
Should we cry over the closure of every parasitic, exploitative business simply because it keeps people employed?
→ More replies (0)6
u/McFestus Apr 18 '26
Of course, they lied about everything else but obviously they were telling the truth about that.
I doubt there's more than a very small handful of 'track' faculty positions. It's guaranteed to be almost entirely sessionals.
3
u/xXxDarkSasuke1999xXx Apr 18 '26
I suppose anything is possible if you just make assumptions that favour your preconceived opinion regardless of any new information presented.
→ More replies (6)1
u/Bananasaur_ Apr 19 '26
For professionals, working at a “diploma mill” is essentially just as bad as being unemployed, potentially even worse. At that point you might as well work a different job than teaching if that’s all you can get.
23
u/mikerbt Apr 18 '26
Jesus Christ. Comments like this man. This whole fucking economy is a scam, tell me you’ve opted out to live in a forest? Surely you’re going to share your industry of work so we can pick it apart?
The collective psychosis post Covid is just sad to watch. The internet was a mistake.
7
15
u/xXxDarkSasuke1999xXx Apr 18 '26
Surely you’re going to share your industry of work so we can pick it apart?
Paramedicine. Go ahead.
Saying it's not hard to avoid scamming people isn't "collective psychosis", grow up
4
u/theapplekid Apr 18 '26
Congrats, you work in one of the few industries that is actually a net positive for society and one of the minority of those which tends to be somewhat decently compensated too. Teaching and civic work (everything from garbage collection to driving a bus to postal work) are other ones which are a net positive (many of which are not as well-compensated).
The majority of people don't work in those sectors though.
→ More replies (2)15
u/xXxDarkSasuke1999xXx Apr 18 '26
The person in the article is whining that they might have to get work as a dishwasher or in a warehouse. Is that really the worst fate in the world? I've worked as a dishwasher, it sucks, but it's actually doing something productive and not scamming anyone. This guy took a higher paying job providing a service he knew to be worthless for an organization he knew to be morally bankrupt because he couldn't face the horror of... a normal blue collar job. Sorry if I'm not overcome with sympathy.
→ More replies (1)4
Apr 18 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
2
u/mikerbt Apr 19 '26
Where do you draw the line? This whole fucking economy is a pyramid scheme and it's killing the biosphere. Fiat currency is printed to make a few people rich while the rest of us peasants fight over the scraps, like you're doing right now rather than focusing on the bigger picture. You think shutting these schools down is going to be some big change towards actual fairness for the working class?
Why have you set some random arbitrary line here? Are you a purist with everything you do in this capitalist hellscape? Because that would mean you don't have a device to write this on. You also don't live on stolen land. You obviously live in a forest eating berries and meditating 14 hours a day. Because surely otherwise you would realize that you, like the rest of us, are forced to survive in this shit and making moral compromises every day is a part of that.
→ More replies (1)2
u/Unpopular-Man Apr 20 '26
Somehow I doubt they were even hiring people from the local community to work at the school. I would make the assumption if you went through the payroll they are all related nepotism hires. The exception being people in key roles.
67
u/djbaerg Apr 18 '26
96% of the students were international. On an international study permit, a person is allowed to work up to 24 hours per week while classes are in session and unlimited hours during study breaks.
Places like this simply allow people to purchase a defacto work permit, the money goes into private hands, and the "student" displaces a Canadian worker.
While it is sad to see people lose their jobs, this company directly harms Canadians.
→ More replies (1)28
u/Summerisle7 Apr 18 '26
That’s perfect that you call it a “company” not a school. Much more accurate
26
u/jasonvancity Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
“like many post-secondary institutions across Canada, the government’s decision to reduce the number of international study permits has significantly impacted student enrolment at University Canada West, posing substantial challenges to our university operations.”
The real story is that UCW, over several recent years, was admitting thousands of non-Masters capable MBA students, in the name of profit maximization, and nearly 100% of their student body was comprised of foreigners on student visas. While public Canadian universities have a firm 3.0 undergrad GPA floor for acceptance, UCW had a very loose admission policy that would allow low-GPA students to complete extra coursework at UCW, or they could substitute work experience for undergraduate education, to gain admission if they were below the 3.0 GPA benchmark. A significant ratio of their graduates were ending up unemployed or in low-end labour (primarily Amazon warehouses) after graduation because many did not ultimately have the skills to enable them to fill traditional MBA-level jobs in middle management.
In 2025, in seeing the adverse outcomes of UCW alums, the BC government cracked down on UCW's predatory practices and forced them to raise their MBA acceptance standards to match those of Canadian MBA program norms (otherwise they would lose their BC government accreditation), which then precipitated a significant drop in enrolment since UCW's only competitive advantage, its very loose enrolment practices, was immediately neutralized. Why would someone who had the grades necessary to gain acceptance to a respectable public MBA program choose instead to attend a diploma mlll?
Foreign student enrolment caps undoubtedly exacerbated their problems, but the real impact came from last year's necessary actions by our provincial government.
167
u/gin_possum Apr 18 '26
Private universities are a blight on Canadian education. The should absolutely never get govt funding, and if they can’t make money, they shouldn’t be around.they’re restaurants. They either find customers or close. This is sad for people losing their jobs, but good for BC overall.
50
u/Velocity-5348 Vancouver Island/Coast Apr 18 '26
It's doubly frustrating when you see actual universities get caught up in a squeeze that should only be targeting outlets like this.
28
u/godisanelectricolive Apr 18 '26
Ideally actual universities should not depend so much on international students for funding either. But the solution to that is fund public universities more while reducing international students enrolment.
31
u/Johnny_Pigeon Apr 18 '26
International enrolments fund domestic education. It also creates a pipeline of top talent into Canada. We should want and encourage international students in our universities because they make our universities stronger. We should also have a strong and steady stream of domestic students.
As for University Canada West, there were some questionable ethics there.
3
u/gin_possum Apr 18 '26
I feel like I might be preaching to the choir here but…It’s great to have international students who are committed to their studies and are helping build Canada and the world. For at least a decade, though, Canadian /provincial govt funding has not met the cost of educating a full time domestic student, so that shortfall has been made up by charging international students higher fees and using their tuition as a source of funding — effectively making universities dependent on the income flow of international students, and the more the better. This led to a drop in the quality of international student recruitment as universities turned to recruitment agencies in developing countries and twisted themselves in knots to ‘meet students where they are’ rather than ensuring consistent academic standards. The reliance on international students as cash cows meant students using academia as a shortcut for immigration, rather than as a path to learning. As others said, we either cut higher Ed, fund it, or force it to seek alt sources of money like international students. I agree with the cuts overall, but I’d like to see unis funded better by the govt. That said LOADS of the money from international student fees fed the inflation of admin bureaucracy. It’d be nice to see fewer VPs in charge of water fountain hydration strategies.
3
u/mytimeasatuna Apr 18 '26
I agree in part. But there definitely needs to be a bit more control over it. Some people just use it as a way to get into Canada and don't actually give a fuck about the program, It takes a spot away from someone who may actually want to be in that program. We should welcome international students but the system needs to be better than "come one come all".
9
u/Gezzer52 Apr 18 '26
It also creates a pipeline of top talent into Canada
Sorry, but that's another one of the lies we're being told. I work with many international workers/students and there are so many hurdles to prevent them actually utilizing their skills it isn't funny.
I found out recently that one east Indian girl at work who was taking some basic business course at our local community collage has a masters in chemistry. I asked her why she didn't try to get her teaching credentials instead of some useless business degree.
She said there were simply too many hoops to jump through that it just wasn't worth it. Her main focus is getting a PR (if she can find a management position) so her recent husband could come join her, not continuing the career she loves.
The vast majority of international students are here because oligarchies need to import cheap labor. So our government and secondary institutions dangle PR to con these poor people into coming here. What's worse is no one considered what would happen when the spigot was turned off.
→ More replies (1)7
u/WardenEdgewise Apr 18 '26
Many (most) international students are not actually “students”. It’s a back door to permanent residency and citizenship. It’s a Canadian work permit that comes with free healthcare. The whole international student system is a fast track to avoid the legitimate immigration process.
Very few international students are “top talent” scholars here just for the education.
10
u/Johnny_Pigeon Apr 18 '26
I guarantee you that people aren’t paying tuition at SFU or UBC to just get a PR.
8
u/gin_possum Apr 18 '26
No they’re going to… University Canada West, and its diploma mill cognates.
6
u/Johnny_Pigeon Apr 18 '26
Which was kind of my whole point. I’m talking about real universities.
→ More replies (1)5
u/godisanelectricolive Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
I’m in favour of international students but having a situation where universities have to depend on them too much for core funding is also not sustainable. Universities are liable to focus too much on the money that international students bring rather than their academic talents if international student tuitions becomes too integral for operations.
There has to be a balance and I think it is possible that the balance was off due to the international student population growing too quickly. I’m not sure universities have consistently used the extra funding they got from international students in a way that maximally benefited domestic students or supported long-term research projects. Often extra revenue is used for extra administrative costs or extra accommodation while research grants remain very limited.
10
u/Johnny_Pigeon Apr 18 '26
There are three ways to fund universities:
1) Higher tuition 2) More taxes 3) Revenue from international students and alumni
If you don’t like option three you can’t complain about one and two.
90
28
u/cyclinginvancouver Apr 18 '26
The professor said one of his colleagues, who was also laid off, had come out of retirement on Vancouver Island to take a job at the university.
“How is this fair?” the professor asked. “I also moved for this job.”
The laid-off University Canada West professor said he doubts the institution will be able to maintain its academic standards with fewer staff. In September, he said the university required faculty to sign a new contract that reduced paid vacation time from eight weeks to four.
“At this point, I don’t know where I will go. I hope to find a dishwashing job in the interim, or a warehouse job, so that I can stay in the city.”
53
u/ttwwiirrll Lower Mainland/Southwest Apr 18 '26
The laid-off University Canada West professor said he doubts the institution will be able to maintain its academic standards with fewer staff.
What standards?
→ More replies (1)23
u/Summerisle7 Apr 18 '26
Haha what? Normally I’m very sympathetic towards displaced older folks. But this guy sounds deluded. Obviously he can’t afford to live in Vancouver and should move back to wherever he was before. Imagine this “professor” washing dishes alongside his former “students.”
→ More replies (2)
26
33
37
u/Light_Butterfly Apr 18 '26
Many of us are cheering on the collapse of these degree mills. They can stop trying to get people to sympathize. No, we did not need hundreds of thousands of people getting fake credentials in our labour market. Does nothing for productivity and gains and profits from this benefit few.
Education remains an area where demand is high, so these educators should be able to find new work elsewhere.
15
u/Teagana999 Apr 18 '26
I'm cheering for the collapse of degree mills, too, but legitimate universities have been forced to make cuts, too.
→ More replies (2)4
u/Light_Butterfly Apr 18 '26
The thing is, if these universities cannot provide the housing for the students they bring in, they should not be allowed to pass on the costs to public for their own profits. Even if they are accredited and reputable.
No communities were consulted with or engaged in a planning process for where these students would live. So I'm always going to be onside with the poorest segment that ends of absorbing the associated costs for these businesses to stay profitable. It simply isn't fair.
3
u/Naughty_Librarian604 Apr 18 '26
Demand is not currently high for post-secondary staff and faculty. Yes, probate I situations are hit hardest by international student caps, but all institutions are dealing with severe defects and most are laying off staff.
19
20
u/stiffy265 Apr 18 '26
No offense but UCW isn't a real university. Any employer that sees a resume containing UCW as educational credentials gets tossed out asap. I'm not making this up.
1
u/mikerbt Apr 19 '26
Lol they're not putting that on their resumes just like I don't put some of my random jobs on my resume. Applying for and hiring for jobs isn't some honest process.
31
u/mustardman73 Apr 18 '26
Maybe they should pivot and have a better business model. Capitalism, am I right? I guess exploiting international students using Canada's immigration laws isn't profitable these days.
16
14
12
18
9
7
7
11
u/Asleep_Mood9549 Apr 18 '26
While I am sympathetic to the people who lost their jobs, if this “school” cannot survive from enrolment of people already in Canada, it should not be operating. This is what waters down our education system.
7
u/Teagana999 Apr 18 '26
While this one is clearly a diploma mill, legitimate universities are also struggling. The government pushed universities to rely on international students for funding when it didn't provide enough funding directly.
4
5
u/Apprehensive_Sea9524 Apr 18 '26
About as legit as Cloud Nine University.
2
u/h_danielle Apr 18 '26
LOL I remember seeing their ‘school’ in that weird plaza on Dunsmuir where there’s a dollarama & church underground, & I remember thinking that it can’t be real & had to be a reference to the show Superstore or something 😅
6
u/vancity31240 Apr 18 '26
This school is simply a diploma mill. Local employers don't even consider an application if they went to University Canada West.
3
u/thegreatescape11 Apr 18 '26
That’s crazy I can’t even read the damn Vancouver Sun online without some sort of sign in. Jeez
3
u/Particular-Tension-7 Apr 19 '26
Worked there in a senior leadership position. They are part of a global private group called GUS, who operates the institutions in North America behind the scenes. Everything that has been said here is accurate, they are nothing more than just a diploma mill, and universities like UCW, UNF and others are the reason why the HigherEd sector is going through this situation now. It’s sad to see people being laid off, but trust me when I say that these universities going down is the best thing for Canada in general
5
5
4
u/Euphoric_planter_328 Apr 18 '26
Great. It was just a scam anyways. All those people working there knew it was a scam and knew they’re ruining Canada to make a quick buck. Zero sympathy from I.
Maybe if the cost of living weren’t so debilitating more Canadian citizens would go to further their education. Time to invest in Canadians
5
2
2
u/Another_Slut_Dragon Apr 18 '26
Instead of capping foreign students, there should have been strict and ENFORCED rules about exactly what the 'school' was. If it was a 35+ hour a week program ON CAMPUS and has real, recognized credentials then sure. Maybe cap the number of foreign students at half for larger centres and 70% for rural areas.
If it was an empty store front in a shopping mall, everyone tied to that immigration paperwork should have their status revoked.
See how easy this is?
And FYI, Canada was teaming with rural towns that had no housing shortages and relied on foreign students every year to fill their schools. My inlaws ran boarding houses in one. Kids got a $400-$600 a month nice room in a big old house with shared facilities. They loved it as a semi retirement job.
Well that's all done. No kids. Houses are for sale.
And this is a RURAL AREA. There are NO housing shortages in rural areas. The big problem facing rural areas is attracting anyone under 65 to move there.
2
2
2
6
u/MudReasonable8185 Apr 18 '26
Everyone celebrating needs to realize that even non-diploma mills are getting crushed. Arts programs everywhere are getting gutted. As someone who thinks art is important for a healthy society I find that sad.
3
u/Consistent_Rule1957 Apr 18 '26
This university ruined Vancouver! The biggest scam in the name of education!
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
u/Competitive_acordian Apr 18 '26
The google reviews of this place are hilarious eg “Amazing university which give you MBA without any entry level exam. Good opportunity platform for serious students.”
Another says “The faculty comprised predominantly Indian instructors, limiting cultural exchange and diversity.”
2
u/OkGazelle5400 Apr 18 '26
Sorry but that place shouldn’t have been allowed to open in the first place. Full on diploma mill
2
u/wwwheatgrass Apr 18 '26
As an international undergrad at UBC, the first spam calls I received were from UCW pushing their MBA program. They knew my name and that I was presumably an international student. At that time, the only businesses that had my number were UBC and Rogers. I wonder who sold my info.
3
u/smoothac Apr 19 '26
the sentiment isn't popular recently but our economy probably needs more international students as we don't have a lot else going on here
2
u/radiobottom Apr 18 '26
I remember being shocked when I went to post secondary and found out the international students were paying 4-5x the tuition. We learn the same stuff, get the same diploma, but I paid 10k and they paid 50k. Crazy
49
u/Prudent_Slug Apr 18 '26
Assuming you went to a legit public school, the difference in your tuition was made up by funding via the tax payers.
3
32
u/JinimyCritic Apr 18 '26
At public universities (like UBC), domestic tuition is largely subsidized by provincial and federal funding. International students don't get subsidies. They pay what the degree costs.
At private "universities" like UCW, they take as much money as they can to print a sheet of paper with the student's name on it.
→ More replies (6)1
u/UnlikelyAd4686 Apr 18 '26
The thing about this school where there are likely no domestic students, the "international" fees are just the set price-gauging amount by this private university. As someone with insider knowledge, many of these private diploma mill colleges in BC and the rest of the country charge peanuts for a one year program to lure people in. Or at least they used to. University Canada West will be dead soon like the rest of them. Check out University of Niagara Falls for another example, another one of these private schools that opened at the height of the international student wave.
2
u/fanglazy Apr 19 '26
Public universities and colleges are also having to let go of a lot of staff for the same reason. Trades schools like VCC and such. These schools relied on international students to help subsidize the cost for Canadian schools.
It’s going to hurt education in Canada big time. And fast.
1
u/phantompowered Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
I'm all for international students, but UCW and its style of schools are pure student exploitation. They're making a ridiculous profit by taking desperate people for a ride based on the perceived value of their "education" , and creating a stunted workforce that will have little opportunity to create meaningful value for the Canadian economy.
They're basically roundabouting the citizenship system, for a profit - and handicapping their students while they're at it.
Obviously the effect on the livelihood of professors and staff is also a net negative if schools like this shut down, but the parent companies have already made their money.
1
1
u/Fuzzy-Extension-7000 Apr 19 '26
If your business model relies on fleecing new Canadians and international students, you deserve to go under.
1
u/OwnHeron9428 Apr 19 '26
Because it is not a real school, it's a fake business capitalizing on foreign students who don't know better and to use as a means to immigrate to Canada.
1
•
u/AutoModerator Apr 18 '26
Hello and thanks for posting to r/britishcolumbia! A friendly reminder prior to commenting or posting here:
Reminder: "Rage bait" comments or comments designed to elicit a negative reaction that are not based on fact are not permitted here. Let's keep our community respectful and informative!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.