Cracking down on private colleges?
The problem of unregulated colleges in Canada is widespread and elusive
Dubious colleges also hurt the reputation of the public post secondary education system.
In 2007, the Times of India cautioned readers about the “perils” of studying in Canada. “A group of Indian students who traveled across the globe in pursuit of their MBA dreams are living their worst nightmare,” the Times reported about the students of Vancouver’s Landsbridge University. The school closed in 2007, leaving several hundred international students out of pocket for their tuition and with their student visa status uncertain.
In 2006, the government of China went so far as to release a statement advising students to avoid studying at private institutions in Canada, after reports of separate education scams in B.C. and Ontario. The warning, entitled “Don’t Apply to Canadian Private Schools Blindly,” noted the dangers of substandard programs and a lack of protection for international students enrolled in them. The government of South Korea issued a similar warning in 2006.
These colleges advertise openly online and in ethnic media. Considering how blatantly they run their illegal operations, many critics have expressed frustration at how lax regulation is. But in Ontario, it seems that the provincial government has finally woken up to the problems these unregulated colleges pose. The Star reported this week that the provincial regulator charged with penalizing private colleges running illegally has levied its first fines against a school, a move the newspaper characterized as “a dramatic change of policy.”
The Toronto School of Music on Bayview Ave in Toronto has been fined $36,000 for granting unauthorized degrees in music, and ordered to stop advertising and refund graduates of the school. Students paid $15,000 to $20,000 a year for instruction and most were Chinese students who received student visas from the federal government even though the school was illegal. Prior to 2005 private colleges were not required to register with the government. The Toronto School of Music first opened in 1997, and claims it was unaware of a requirement to register.
But, as has been shown again and again in British Columbia, cracking down on these schools doesn’t always lead to them shutting down. These are elusive beasts, changing names and locations and sometimes existing only on the Wild West of the Internet.
