Quebec is closing the way to immigration, which was accessible to international students attending non-subsidized private colleges.
The new rules, announced Tuesday by the provincial government in cooperation with Ottawa, will take effect in September 2023.
Only those who have completed a program at a public or subsidized private college will be able to obtain a work permit.
The work permit option was a major selling point for non-subsidized colleges, which charge up to $ 25,000 a year for tuition.
In Quebec, the number of students from India in particular has increased from 2,686 in 2017-2018 to 14,712 two years later. Most of them attend private, non-subsidized colleges.
CBC News reports shed light on poor governance in some colleges. In the case of three colleges that abruptly closed last year, many students have not yet received reimbursement, and others have been left in legal uncertainty.
A 2021 report from the Quebec Ministry of Higher Education revealed shortcomings in terms of recruitment, commercial practices, governance and teaching conditions.
Changes designed to address “integrity issues”
Quebec Labor Minister Jean Bullet and Ottawa Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said in a joint statement that the change was aimed at “removing the gaps brought to light” from the investigation into “certain non-subsidized private colleges”.
According to the statement, it “will ensure that Quebec is not used as a portal for permanent establishment in Canada. In other provinces, international students who have followed a non-subsidized training program usually do not have access to this work permit.”
In an interview, Boule said there were “integrity issues” in the system that needed to be addressed.
“We will harmonize with what is being done elsewhere in Canada,” he told Radio-Canada.
“Non-subsidized private schools used this post-graduate work permit to hire staff [and] attracting people who took advantage of our school system and then went elsewhere in Canada. “
Martin Maltais, an expert in higher education policy and a professor at the Université du Québec à Rimouski, said the move was a faster way to tackle the problem of non-subsidized private colleges, rather than introducing legislative reforms.
“This is probably the fastest way to act and have results,” he said.
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