How do universities and colleges decide who to admit? Given the salary advantage that a postsecondary diploma provides, both worldwide And in Canadathis is an important issue of social mobility.
While the the answer varies From one establishment to another, most focus on educational criteria like exam results and grades.
However, the new Canada admission ceiling for study permit applications puts increased pressure on Canadian institutions to also consider immigration criteria when admitting international undergraduate students.
This is just the latest example of the growing influence of immigration on the societal roles of Canadian universities and colleges. Yet those who value public higher education must vigilantly monitor the implications of such changes.
This includes the growing role of for-profit education technology (EdTech) companies in privatization and commercialization of higher education.
Marketing Application Services for Business
Before the cap, immigration-related factors for international applicants, such as citizenship, were taken into account indirectly. For example, the federal government of Canada international education strategies stressed the importance of diversifying the countries of origin of international students in order to minimize financial risks.
However, EdTech companies now market services that rank the presumed probability of obtaining a study permit by individual applicant. According to an international magazine specializing in educationseveral establishments in Ontario use such services.
This calls into question the fundamental principles of access to postsecondary education and could have an impact the diversity of Canadian campuses.
(Shutterstock)
Increasingly influential technological platforms
I’m looking for it recruiting international students as immigrants. Strategic higher education international enrollment efforts play an important role in the initial selection process. Technological platforms to support recruitment and immigration became increasingly influential over the past decade, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Often called “agent aggregators”, these platforms use a range of technologies, sometimes including artificial intelligence, to promise profits – both for themselves and for their client post-secondary institutions – by improving the recruitment and retention of international students.
These platforms are part of a growth in third parties involved in the recruitment of international students which remains largely unregulated.
Admission models are changing
Until recently, schools first evaluated applicants’ international postsecondary credentials to decide whether to issue a letter of acceptance. It was only after this step, when applying for a study permit from the federal government, that immigration credentials were assessed.
In other words, institutions admitted international students, then the federal government admitted them to Canada.
Given provincial governments divestment from public higher education and the growing dependence on tuition fees for international studentsschools have increasingly issued acceptance letters to international students.
“Unsustainable“Growth, particularly in colleges, ended up making life difficult for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), which handled a file 863,197 new study permit applications in 2023.
(Shutterstock)
New “provincial attestation letter”
In January 2024, the federal government responded by instituting a Provincial attestation letter (PAL).
Now, most new undergraduate study permit applications (with some exceptions require not only an admission letter, but also a PAL.
Since provinces have a limited number of PALs to distribute, colleges and universities are, for the first time, forced to limit international undergraduate admission letters. Naturally, schools want to convert as many of these letters into paying international students as possible.
Predicting which admitted students will ultimately accept an offer was already complex before the PAL system. However, since the study permit application places are now limited, the likelihood of an international applicant getting approval for a study permit now matters in a new way. Each admission letter issued to a student whose study permit is refused represents a loss of income.
Ensuring high yield is now particularly important for colleges rely heavily on international studentsespecially those who have a history of admit cohorts of international students with low study permit approval rates.
Study permits and equity
Obtaining a study permit is difficult for some students.
Recent approval rates are hovering between 50 and 60 percentwith wide (and probably racist) deviations based on country and region of origin. In 2021, new study permit applicants from Canada’s top three countries of origin had very different approval rates: China (84 percent), India (60 percent) and Nigeria (34 percent).
Some study permit assessment factors are relatively straightforward, such as whether an international student can pay the cost of living in Canada.
Others are more complex and would never be asked of a domestic student, for example if an applicant is a “serious student” and a strong ties with their country of origin.
This involves evaluating not only individual characteristics but also “cultural context or historical migration patterns” And “factors in the general economic or political environment» of a given country or region.
Predicting study permit approvals
Enter for-profit EdTech companies. According to to certain marketing claimsmachine learning can help predict how international candidates will be assessed by IRCC.
Schools can then take these AI predictions into account Before issue admission letters in their attempt to maximize their PAL allocation.
Higher education and immigration admissions systems involve, by definition, discriminatory selection processes. But schools are not border agents. Allowing immigration interests – however they are projected or evaluated – to so explicitly determine the makeup of a school’s student body is potentially problematic.
Under financial pressure to meet recruitment goals, schools may admit international students based not only on education-related factors, but also on the private sector’s interpretation of IRCC’s priorities.
This will likely exclude some academically gifted students. marginalized environmentsespecially those from Africa And Middle East.
This threatens the benefits of increased diversity, equity and inclusion and could reduce diversity within Canada pool of future immigrants.
Questions around algorithms, data
Companies seeking to capitalize on higher education’s economic vulnerabilities and long-standing trends in the marketing of international education as a product are also unlikely to be transparent about their data sources, their algorithms and profit models.
Proprietary algorithms remain opaque, as do subcontractor roles and commission structures. A lot of personal data is collected from students.
The use of artificial intelligence is a growing problem in immigration in general and study permit assessments specifically.
Learn more:
Canada should be transparent in how it uses AI to screen immigrants
The path to follow
All provinces should make their PAL institutional allocations public, as New Scotland.
IRCC should be transparent about the data it provides to private companies – in part so diversity, equity and inclusion experts can audit its use.
Private companies that screen international students on behalf of public schools should be required to disclose more information about their algorithms and training data. They must also ensure that students truly understand how their personal data is used and shared.
And schools partnering with such companies should be clear international candidates which qualifications are actually assessed.
Ultimately, the systemic problem is the underfunding of Canadian public higher education – and that, above all, requires urgent attention.
