With the cost of living becoming more and more expensive, one student has taken a unique approach to funding his rent payment.
A Carleton international student, who wished to remain anonymous, started a GoFundMe page to raise $900 to help pay for his rent. In less than a week, he raised $985 and has since ended the campaign.
According to Shannon Clarke, the director of Student Affairs, students taking to GoFundMe to pay for their school expenses is not an unusual thing. If an international student comes forward with financial need, Clarke said the university has valuable resources.
“We want to make sure they have as much support on campus as they can get,” Clarke said.
She added that staff can meet one-on-one with students and direct them to counselling, food or international student specific services available on campus. Clarke said she wants to ensure students are able to manage their budgets and are familiar with the services available to them if they need to use them.
“The International Student Services Office is an important resource that students should be accessing,” Clarke said.
Yvan Niyonzima, a second-year computer science student from Rwanda, said he wasn’t aware of the financial support services available for international students.
“I feel like a little bit of help—doesn’t even have to be much—should be available,” Niyonzima said.
He said that money could go towards groceries, rent or his tuition, which he estimates costs him $30,000 annually. Niyonzima said that when he has to pay his tuition, it becomes difficult to also pay his rent.
With his parents living overseas, Niyonzima said even if he did need money from his parents, it would take three to five business days to get to him.
According to the Canadian Federation of Students’ (CFS) website, there are few government regulations on what universities can charge international students. A CFS fact sheet states that on average, international students are charged three times the amount of Canadian students.
Bruce Winer, Carleton’s assistant vice-president (institutional research and planning), said the Ontario government only subsidizes tuition for domestic students.
He said the government did not give a rationale as to why international students are not funded.
“It’s not straightforward other than to say that there’s not a per-student grant for international students in Ontario,” he said.
Winer also said that international students sometimes receive grants from their home country.
Manveer Singh, a second-year masters of engineering student at the University of Ottawa who is originally from India, said he has never faced struggles paying his rent. But, he added that his tuition costs three-and-a-half times more than the average domestic student.
Winer said that while there’s no “specific grant” for international students, they do receive a subsidy of sorts when they’re accepted to study at Carleton, considering the university and its buildings are funded by the Ontario government.
“They get an Ontario education,” he explained.
He said all provinces treat international student fees differently, and in the past, Ontario has subsidized international student fees in some form.
“We are getting the same education, but . . . if they want to bring more international [students] to our country, they need to lower down the fees,” Singh said.
Photo by Aaron Hemens
