In her blog post, Angela has addressed the issue of the recently proposed increase in international fees and residence fees by UBC. I totally agree with her on this issue, as the price increase will add further to international students’ heavy financial burdens. What distresses me more is that the university did not provide any concrete and convincing reasons to support their proposal. Just because other top Canadian universities have also increased the tuition fees doesn’t mean UBC has to do the same to “stay at the same rank”. After all, it’s the quality of education and students’ experiences that matters.
Meanwhile, according to a CBCnews article, UBC is spending more than $127 million on building a new college, known as Vantage College, catering exclusively to high-paying international students. UBC even openly admits that it is intended to “alleviate financial pressure on the university”. However, the exorbitant tuition fees paid by Vantage College students may not guarantee them a more enriching college experience. Based on my personal observation, the integration of those students into the big UBC community is proven to be really difficult. The university should focus more on helping them to be integrated into campus rather than treating them as revenue generating machines.
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