I sometimes get accused of being more pre-occupied with the faults in higher education than the successes.  And that’s natural, I suppose: while HESA (it’s not just me folks, there’s fifteen of us here) tends to position itself as a “critical friend” to higher education, writing a blog about the subject sometimes ends up looking like a journalistic approach to the subject, i.e. going from one disaster to another.  So instead, let me tell you about an interesting experiment happening just outside Toronto with respect to international students; namely, the Brampton Charter.

Here’s the background: going back several years now, a great number of international students, overwhelmingly Indian (and mainly Sikh) in origin have been going to Brampton, Ontario.  Many of them were students at Sheridan College, the main educational institution in the region, though as time went on greater numbers also enrolled in Algoma University’s Brampton satellite campus and a variety of private vocational schools.  As these numbers have swelled over the past few years – to something like 20,000 students by some estimates (though only a small fraction are enrolled at Sheridan) – problems have multiplied.  The 2021 Auditor General’s report, which was scathing about how Ontario colleges managed their massive (and lucrative) influx of international students, was a warning sign for Sheridan, but no more so than a rising level of complaints from social service agencies in the Brampton area who were having to deal with a new and demanding clientele without any new resources (a report, Invited but Forgotten, co-written by a number of these agencies on the subject of international students, is a sobering read). 

Sheridan’s response to all this response was novel: instead of trying to PR-spin its way out of the negative press, the college slowed international enrolments and reached out to civic leaders and social service agencies, most notably Punjabi Community Health Services and Indus Community Services, and the City of Brampton to begin working out a joint response to the challenge.   The goal?  To make Brampton the best-practice city in the country for helping international students reach their education (and immigration) goals. Other institutions, including Centennial College and St. Clair College, also participated.

During the first few months of 2022, this Roundtable group met once a month, trying to develop a shared understanding of the problems international students in Brampton faced and assess what kinds of initiatives were working and which were not.  Based on this, they came up with around 150 suggestions for short- and medium-term interventions that different social actors could take to improve conditions for international students, and then held a major symposium in the summer of 2022 to discuss these ideas and come up with a way forward.

What resulted from all this was the Brampton Charter.  It is based on a six-point statement of principles:

• Appreciate that international student experiences are complex, multifaceted, distinctive, and as heterogenous as students themselves.
• Respect that international students contribute diverse perspectives that enrich the learning experience for all students and are not competing with domestic students for postsecondary spaces.
• Recognize the distinct stressors, atypical obstacles and macro- and micro-level factors that influence the lives of international students.
• Acknowledge the need to view the international student experience holistically beginning from when a student considers studying in Canada to beyond graduation.
• Define the international student experience to encompass physical, mental, social, cultural, financial and academic well-being, which includes immigration, housing, health, racism, food security, language and belonging.
• Respond through multi-stakeholder engagement to fill the gaps and bridge the silos that challenge a smooth and seamless international student experience.

#2 isn’t universally true (though it probably is at Sheridan) and will probably become less accurate over the next few years, but still, this is a fine place to start.

Anyways, from this, the charter commits signatories to 30-odd measures grouped together under five themes (ethical recruitment standards, academic supports for students, safe and affordable housing, opportunities for legal work opportunities, and transparent pathways to citizenship).  It also commits members to a set of accountability measures which are meant to get participants to self-report on progress and co-operate on data collection (deeply un-Canadian, though I heartily approve).

Though the Brampton Charter is, for the moment, limited to one community on the western end of the GTA, it’s clear that lots of organizations from right around the country could sign on if they chose, in a manner similar to the Scarborough Charter on anti-Black racism and inclusion, or the Okanagan Charter on Health-Promoting Universities.  I’m a wee bit skeptical about how well this idea translates to assistance for international students – it seems to me the other charters work because individual institutions can sign on their own, whereas this one requires not just institutions but a lot of community partners to sign on in order to be effective.  And also, on the biggest issue of all – housing – there’s reasonable doubt that this approach is anywhere near strong enough to be effective.

But still: simply by providing a roadmap to grown-up, respectful town-gown relations on issues of common interest, I think the Brampton Charter and the process that led to it is an excellent development.  Let’s see more of this.

Note: tomorrow’s blog will be the regular Thursday podcast, with global tertiary expert Jamil Salmi as our guest.  Next week is a week off for the blog (I need a reading week, too!) but I’ll be back in your inbox on March 6^th.  Cheers.