As the number of international students making their way to Canadian universities continues to grow, questions are emerging as to whether universities are providing enough support to help these students adjust.
A CBC article from Sept. 22 reported an increasing number of international students from China were going to the Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre for help, putting a strain on the centre’s resources.
Sharon Kan, the executive director of the centre, said the majority of the students they see come for help with day-to-day issues, including traffic tickets, language difficulties, and help dealing with landlords.
Kan added they see a lot of students around graduation time who come with questions about finding a job and how to stay in Canada after their student visas expire.
Ryan Flannagan, the acting manager of the International Students Services Office (ISSO) at Carleton, said the university has a number of services available for international students.
These range from a mentorship program, where incoming students can connect with a mentor to ask them questions, to formal orientation programs, to the large number of cultural clubs and societies on campus, he said.
International students can also move into residence two days before anyone else, which allows them to participate in an orientation session designed specifically for them.
During the year, Flannagan said the ISSO also takes international students on trips to familiarize them with Ottawa.
International students also have access to a counsellor specifically trained to help students cope with things such as culture shock and other transition issues.
“I think we put on really a full court press in the first couple months of the year so that students are well aware of the services that are available to them here on campus,” Flannagan said.
According to Flannagan, international students account for about 10 to 11 per cent of Carleton’s population.
Based on numbers from the 2014-15 school year, Carleton had 28,289 total students and there were approximately 2,800 to 3,100 international students.
“Carleton has one of the most diverse student populations in Ontario, outside of the Greater Toronto Area,” Flannagan said.
“If people ask me if Carleton has enough services for international students on our campus, I can say without a doubt that we do, I think we do a very good job,” Flannagan said. “I think that if students need support on our campus, there is a range of formal and informal support available to them.”
Carleton University Student’s Association (CUSA) president Fahd Alhattab also said CUSA has services designed to help international students, including the International Students Centre, a CUSA-run service centre. Alhattab also noted the International Students Gala, an annual event for international students.
“We focus a lot on the cultural side of things,” Alhattab said. “A lot of students coming from abroad feel alone, and so we look at how to build these communities.”
Kan said the centre has only started keeping track of the number of students who come to them for help over the last few years, and said they have helped about 100 students up to this point.
When students come to them for help, Kan said the centre makes a point to introduce them to the community so “they’re not just going to Chinese restaurants and speaking Chinese.”
However, Kan said the centre can only continue to help students if it receives additional resources from the provincial government.
“If we help students, we have to help less with other immigrants,” Kan said.
