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From: hogg@utcsri.UUCP (John Hogg)
Newsgroups: ont.general
Subject: Re: Unfairness with Foreign Students
Message-ID: <3854@utcsri.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 31-Dec-86 10:31:59 EST
Article-I.D.: utcsri.3854
Posted: Wed Dec 31 10:31:59 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 31-Dec-86 18:47:46 EST
References: <8056@watdaisy.UUCP> <4129@watmath.UUCP>
Reply-To: hogg@utcsri.UUCP (John Hogg)
Distribution: ont
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Lines: 53
Summary: 

In article <4129@watmath.UUCP> rbutterworth@watmath.UUCP writes:
>
>A typical foreign student will easily spend five or ten thousand
>dollars of his own country's money a year while staying in Canada.
>After four years he will leave the country with nothing but one
>small piece of paper.
>
>So what am I missing?

The problem is that the student is taking more than a piece of paper out of
the country: he or she is taking knowledge.  If his or her place was
instead taken by a Canadian (the story goes), that knowledge would stay
here to enrich the country.

Or looking at it another way, the cost of teaching a student is vastly
greater under out system than the tuition fees; they account for only about
a fifth of the university expenses.  (Note to quibblers: this number is
probably old, and there is obviously great potential for creative
accounting.  But the argument holds.)  This puts a large hole in the
"profit" made from a foreign student.  The remaining cash inflow isn't
simply thrown at the people of this country; it is used to buy goods and
services, and these cost money to produce themselves.  Dropping down to
an idiot-child ECO 100 approach, from the economic point of view, we should
compare the profit made from selling these goods and services to the cost
of providing the student with education at bargain-basement rates.  I have
not seen any analysis one way or the other to suggest that we win or lose
on the deal.  Of course, this also neglects the advantage of having people
employed, even if it doesn't benefit the overall economic system.

So am I against foreign students?  Most emphatically not.  First and
foremost, they supply a different viewpoint to what can be a very closed
academic community.  (Insert your favourite "cultural mosaic" buzzphrases
here.)  Second, it's not a one-way street.  We also send our students to
other countries, where they often receive comparable breaks.  Third,
nations which can't afford decent universities probably deserve some form
of foreign aid, and education is the most valuable aid we can give.

In short, foreign students are a benefit to Canada.  However, the
accounting justification is badly flawed.  And a strong case can be made
for a system in which student visas and tuition are given (a) in exchange
for similar privileges abroad, (b) as explicit foreign aid, (c) in appropriate
numbers and selected directions to broaden the academic community, or (d) for
LARGE quantities of cash.  The problem, of course, is that the current policy
is not based on any consideration of why we want foreign students, and is thus
merely a fuzzy version of (d).
-- 

John Hogg
hogg@utcsri.uucp
hogg@csri.toronto.cdn
"I never understood when he was jesting.  In my country, when you joke you
say something and then you laugh very noisily, so everyone shares in the joke."
				---Umberto Eco, _The Name of the Rose_