Drop in international students a financial hit for school districts, host families

NORTH VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Restrictions on global travel could take months to lift, putting plans to study in Canada on hold for many international students and creating an expected financial hit for many local school districts and the host families who depend on room and board paid by students studying abroad.

The North Vancouver School District welcomed about 685 international students for the 2019-2020 school year, many of whom returned to their home countries as the COVID-19 situation worsened.

“In terms of fall enrollment, we are monitoring the numbers closely – our projections include a 30 per cent change in numbers,” says the district in an emailed statement to NEWS 1130.

“It is important to state that the situation is highly fluid and we are still early on, so it is simply too soon to say what impact these changes may have on our budget.”

The North Vancouver School District receives $15,000 per international student, so that would mean about a $3-million dollar drop in revenue compared to the previous school year.

Meanwhile, a homestay placement agency on the North Shore says it is planning for a significant reduction in its business in the months ahead after seeing two-thirds of its international students return home as the pandemic worsened.

“The summer is pretty much a 100 per cent write off,” says Collin Mercer, director of First Choice International.

“In the summertime we tend to handle short term placements where students come for ESL courses for four-to-16 weeks. We also have a lot of groups that come in the summer. Given the travel restrictions that are on and given the uncertainty of classroom training, we anticipate there are no classes being delivered this summer.”

Mercer says they usually place more than 400 students with families through the summer months, and they pay close to $1000 per month to their hosts in room and board — an important source of income for many families. FCI’s fall numbers are also expected to be much lower than normal.

“On the high school side, we are seeing a significant reduction. We normally do not receive high school students until the end of August. Last year we had over 400 high school students enrolled in our program and we are currently sitting at 280, so that’s about 70 per cent of our attendance from last year. However, we are starting to get inquiries about the possibility of some of those coming in September postponing until the February intake for high school students,” Mercer explains.

“One of the challenges that we face is that international travel is usually planned a long time in advance and if a student is coming for longer than six months, they need to apply for a study permit. Currently the visa offices are closed so it‘s difficult for that to occur.”

As a result, Mercer says they’ve had to cut their staff.

“For us, it isn’t just about the economy re-opening, it’s about when can we get those students to Canada,” he says.

“Recently we laid off about 40 per cent of our staff and we were not able to really take advantage of temporary layoffs because we envision that our numbers will probably be down until at least January or February. We will probably have less than 50 per cent of the students we would usually have in September just given the length of time it takes for a student to make the decision to come and the process it takes for them to arrive.”

The North Vancouver School District says it is “being thoughtful in planning for the remainder of this school year and for the upcoming fall” and recruitment for international student remains an ongoing focus.

“We are in close contact with the students (and their families) who plan on joining us in September. We attribute part of the success we’ve had with our international program to our commitment to proactive and timely communication with students and paying close attention to their needs. This practice will not change,” says the district.

That is positive news for Mercer and host families waiting to see what will happen come September.

“I know that there are a lot of families who still have their home open and we are in the process of connecting with them,” says Mercer. “Especially given the current situation where we anticipate there may have to be a 14-day quarantine period when the students arrive from abroad.”

He says FCI is working with host families to discuss what that might look like.

“We are expecting hosts are generally still very receptive. For some it is an important contribution to their family income, so we recognize it is good for them if we can bring international students in, but obviously they want to make sure it is not putting their families in jeopardy.”