Just when the New Westminster school district was poised to re-grow its international student program, along came COVID-19.
Trustees received an update on the district’s international education program as part of a budget presentation at their April 28 school board meeting.
The school district’s preliminary 2020/21 budget had called for just over $2 million in tuition fees from international students, but that number has now been adjusted down to $1.28 million due to COVID-19. Even before the pandemic hit, the school district had been budgeting for less revenue from international tuition fees than in the previous year; in 2019/20, offshore tuition fees totalled more than $3.7 million.
Secretary-treasurer Bettina Ketcham noted the district has undertaken a three-year course of reducing its international student numbers in order to make space for local students, and this year is the last of those three years.
“We had, until COVID-19, anticipated 130 students coming to us from across the world, joining our district for next year,” she said, noting that has changed due to international travel restrictions. “We have had to cull our expectations downward again because we are uncertain if the travel restrictions are going to be relaxed for September.”
Now the school district is budgeting for 88 of those 130 students, which Ketcham described as a “worst-case scenario.”
In fact, Ketcham said, there is good news on the international student front; the district has been working on increasing the numbers of international students and, in fact, has determined it will be able to make space for an extra 100 international students, beyond the originally planned-for 130.
“However, it would be unwise for us to build in that positive assumption at this time, given that there is uncertainty as to whether, even with the recruitment efforts going on, if those students can come,” she said. “Hopefully, maybe, as the budget process continues or maybe even beyond that, we will see some relaxation in international travel which will allow us to not only realize the original 130 students that we were hoping would come into our schools, but also grow the program as well.”
Trustee Danielle Connelly questioned how the district has been able to increase the potential international enrolment by that much.
Superintendent Karim Hachlaf noted the district’s three-year plan to reduce international student numbers was a conservative one based on ensuring space for local students.
“We took a conservative approach because we did not want to accept international students that we could not commit to,” he said. “Some are here for a term, a year; in other cases, they are here to complete their whole graduation commitment, and we wanted to be able to commit to our international students.”
Now that the district has set out its timetables for the next school year, Hachlaf said, it has ascertained there will indeed be space for more students.
“We have additional space where we’re confident we can easily accommodate our local students with the current registration numbers and increase our international numbers,” he said.
Trustee Mark Gifford pointed out international students bring in about twice as much money per student for the district as the regular per-student funding level from the province. He questioned what the changing status of international programming would mean for staffing levels in the international program, considering the board has seen a few different scenarios regarding international education at its past few meetings.
“The situation is obviously extremely fluid,” Ketcham said, but she noted no staffing decisions had been made based on previous budget information. “We’re still very much in the mobilization and planning for next year, and so there hasn’t been this yo-yo effect of ‘OK, we’re cutting all these staff; OK, now we’re hiring them back next week, and then now we’ve cut them again.’”
Ketcham said discussions with the director of international education and the senior management team are ongoing, and management feels the conservative approach is the best way forward for now.
“It is certainly easier to mobilize and implement additional staffing than it is to staff at higher rates and then reduce it,” she said.
Hachlaf told trustees the district’s hope is to maintain the current projection of 130 international students, but it’s wisest to budget for a reduced number so the district isn’t caught by surprise.
“We’re still hopeful that we can go above the 88 and get closer to 130, but that remains to be seen,” he said. “Additionally, as those numbers are fluid, so too will the review of international staffing to align appropriately with the number of students that we have.
“There really is this yin and yang, if you will, of a short-term and long-term approach. The long-term certainly is definitely positive with our ability to increase ultimately the international student population; but for now, given the pandemic, we are in a holding pattern trying to maintain our 130 enrolment for international students.”
Part of the district’s international offerings also include summer programs for international students, mostly coming from China and Japan. This year’s summer programs have been cancelled because of COVID-19, leading to a net loss of about $86,000 ($196,000 loss in revenue, offset by $110,000 in reduced costs).
