Foreign students get second chance

Algoma University re-evaluates grades for online class after days-long sit-in at Brampton campus

- NICHOLAS KEUNG

Failing marks for dozens of international students have led to a dayslong sit-in at an Ontario university, with some frustrated students saying they’ve been left feeling as though the school is trying to milk them for more money.

In response to the controversy, Algoma University has re-evaluated the grades in one online course offered by its Brampton campus and, finding them “abnormally low,” has given dozens more students a passing grade. It’s also moved to offer the students a free makeup exam.

The school says it deeply values academic integrity and fairness, and that for those students retaking the exam, it will be up to them to do the work and make the grade. It didn’t address the students’ suggestion that it was trying to extract more fees out of the affected students.

The incident is the latest to turn a spotlight on Canada’s international student program, which has become the subject of increasing scrutiny in recent years amid soaring enrolment by foreign students.

Some of the students in this instance were enrolled with Algoma University’s Brampton campus in a one-year postgraduate certificate program in information technology. One of their courses in the fall semester was an online class in techniques of systems analysis.

Last week, the group learned that many of the 230 students in the class, the majority of them from India, had flunked the course and would have to pay $3,500 in tuition to retake it.

They said this would delay their graduation and subsequent application for a postgraduate work permit toward earning permanent residence in Canada.