TRUSTEES SPLIT ON FOREIGN STUDENT COMMISSIONS

A proposal to increase commissions to agents who recruit international students to study at Hamilton public schools is getting pushback from some trustees.

Agents presently get a 15 per cent cut of the $14,500 annual tuition paid by international students, but only for their first year of study. No commissions are paid for subsequent years.

Staff is recommending the HamiltonWentworth District School Board increase tuitions by $350 and now also pay commissions of 10 per cent in the second year of study and five per cent in year three. Application fees would also rise to $350 from $275.

Trustee Todd White said he can support the tuition and application fee hikes because the board makes "a razor-thin profit," but opposes paying more to agents who recruit students and arrange for their housing without a deeper analysis.

He said "there has been a traditional discontent publicly" about the treatment of international students, including home placements and lack of supports for feelings of isolation, depression and other mental health issues.

"It's despicable in a lot of cases how much money is made on international students coming into boards," White said during budget discussions at the board's March 9 finance and facilities meeting.

"I think the issue at hand is that there's a third party making a lot of money while we are enabling a third party to do so off of public education."

Senior budget manager Denise Dawson said the proposed commission increases align with those paid by other area boards and will help attract more international students.

She said the Hamilton public board's international student enrolment dropped to 125 because of the pandemic, but is expected to rebound to at least 150 for next September.

Associate director Matthew Gerard said international students are less about profit and more about bringing an "intangible benefit" to schools.

The new commission structure seeks to increase supports, but help is also available from social workers, guidance counsellors and others at schools, he said.

"I think we need to continue to make sure students know where to go to find the support that they need," Gerard said.

But trustee Elizabeth Wong said she shares White's concerns and questions if agents are the best way to attract international students.

"I've heard a lot of anecdotal evidence that these agents are very much exploiting these families and the price tags that we're privy to and that we hear about are not the true cost that families are paying," she said.

"Parents are sometimes paying upwards of 20 times the cost of what we think the agents are actually charging them and they're pocketing quite a bit of money."

But trustee Maria Felix Miller said increasing commissions will make agents want to work on the board's behalf and help ensure students enrol for more than one year.

"While I absolutely share the concerns around any student in our system (having) felt like they were taken advantage of, I do think it is important that if we're going to continue to have our international students, that we are fostering it in a way that is sustainable and that is a long-term option for us," she said.

Miller's motion to approve the fee and commission increases failed on a 2-2 vote, with board chair Dawn Danko also in favour and White and Wong opposed.

A subsequent vote only backed the fee increases. The failed recommendation to increase the commissions will now go to the full board for a vote.