The Impact on Host Countries Like Canada
The impact of this influx of Korean and other international students was tremendous in host countries like Canada. In British Columbia and other provinces, public schools began charging over 10,000 CAD in annual tuition for ̈visa ̈ holding international students (as opposed to immigrants).
Public school boards developed international education departments with teams devoted to marketing and recruiting international students. New positions were created and Directors of International Education, International Marketing and Recruitment Officers, Cultural Liaison Officers, and Homestay Coordinators were hired. English as a Second Language classes in many schools skyrocketed in numbers and demand for qualified ESL teachers boomed. Local families supplemented their income by hosting Korean students, many of them elementary school pupils, by the thousands.
The lines between public and private education were blurred and debates, often behind the scenes within school boards, raged on the pros and cons of this trend for the host country. Was public education being bolstered by the addition of these new students and sources of revenue? Or was it being undermined by stretching resources to the limit without the real interests of the students at heart? And if public education is about creating citizens, where do ̈visa ̈ students, in the host country temporarily, fit in the equation?
To read the rest of the article, subscribe to the International Admission Bulletin for free.
To read the 2023 issue of the International Admissions Bulletin, click here. If you are interested in contributing to our 2024 edition, please email bulletin@openapply.com