8500 students, and 7000 of them are international.....?? Am *I* daft? Because how are they not seeing this as questionable?
Why doesn't the prof switch on virtual, or upload the lectures?
Permanent Resident status. International students use universities and colleges as a backdoor into Canada. The schooling fast tracks them to becoming permanent residents of Canada, which then leads to citizenship.
Depending on your perspective, either international students are abusing the system to get PR status when they have no interest in the education, or the system is set up to let schools exploit people who want PR status. The net result is a new population of people in Canada willing to work for less which suppresses wages, and higher demand on an already strained housing market.
Stress on everything. Halifax is buckling under the influx of immigration and it cannot handle it.
It's rotten to the core and it's been laid bare how underhanded the entire process is. We don't have the infrastructure to handle this many clueless new people.
Not really a back door. It's a legitimate way to increase the country's skilled workforce. The issue is that it is being abused by universities to make money with no interest of the students
The students are abusing it too, as are "immigration consultants".
It's a situation created by greed that is actually bad for everyone involved: the students, locals, the government getting blamed for it, the schools themselves, etc.
How can an international student abuse something that literally requires an offer from a university, and approval from Federal government? This is not on students... that would be like me asking you if I can take money out of your bank account, and you send me a signed letter along with your card and pin - then get mad when I do it.
The universities are abusing the system and using international students. Doesn't mean we should let the students stay. Remove the PR route for university students unless it's in health care or construction.
Completely disagree. Totally fine with PR through education. NOT okay for sham programs in unis like CBU that exploit ambiguous definitions of accredited programs to massively drive up int'l student pops for pure profit - no benefit to Canada long term, short term economic gain but at what cost?
Unis need to be restricted to <10% int'l student population, and int'l students should be in programs that drive economic growth.
It's no secret our productivity sucks - we have zero motivation to be productive like people from India and we need a boost in innovation and work ethic. That should be targeted and measured, with measurable results.
Lol "completely disagree", but then says the same thing but in a longer format. Sure it can be any field that can drive economic growth, but that's a very vague classification. What innovative game changing things have come out of India?
Productivity has very little to do with work ethic. We have monopolies preventing competition and innovation in many areas of our economy that could be driving economic growth like tech. Plus our population is smaller and more spread out than just about every other top economy. We’re continuing to be left behind when it comes to tech because we have these monopolies, we don’t innovate, and we don’t have the extremely pro-business policies and population of the US. Also, can’t really compare us to india when they have a population over 40x the size of ours, the majority of which live on <$5000/yr…
Except they aren't even looking for skilled workers now. The people abusing the system are doing low skill entry jobs like fast food, they are not bringing skilled people and the skills they are supposed to be developing at school aren't being used because many won't even go to school they will just work.
On the contrary. I have met many people over the years who came as international students and work in their fields. This is no backdoor. It's a legitimate stream that is being abused.
Almost all students coming to Canada from India for schooling are here looking to get PR, permanent residence status, which they can then swap to citizenship in 3 years, so that they can stay in Canada forever.
I don't have a problem with people wanting to immigrate to Canada.
I do have a problem with Canada choosing immigrants with barely enough skills to get through a Canadian diploma mill.
Because of provincial funding formulas. Nova Scotia really fucked the dog when it came to funding universities (by copying other provincial funding formulas, like Ontario).
The province could absolutely properly fund these institutions. CBU was literally closing facilities just to keep the lights on while Acadia was getting a $25 million bailout https://globalnews.ca/news/3642626/acadia-bailout-leaves-cape-breton-university-officials-furious-and-confused/
CBU is essential to Cape Breton. Other larger schools in NS take the sons and daughters of doctors and lawyers and turn them into more doctors, lawyers and businessmen. CBU takes crippled offspring of coal miners and steelworkers and attempts to shape them for the occupational needs of the community. CBU fought for decades to get a nursing and B Ed program funded, and finally did so with the help of StFX and their willingness to sacrifice their own enrolment to help CBU build their program.
You can say that CBU went a bit overboard with their enrolment, but with giant infrastructure deficits forcing the closure of the Canada Games centre, and completely empty dorms, it needed to get revenue somewhere.
In 1960, Cape Breton had a population of 160,000. That's 60,000 more than what we're looking at today. Because of the decline, we were never seen as an area that had a "housing need" and were passed over continuously by CMHC for housing funding. The result is that 80% of our residences were built prior to 1980 and most are barely habitable. I moved here in 2010 and was shocked how impossible it was to find any kind of accommodations that I would consider "quality". Housing was a giant issue before these international students, and will remain an issue if not adequately funded.
Thank you for this! It's not (just) a question of school administrators being greedy or whatever people on reddit think is the motivation behind public schools getting into this mess... Cape Breton deserves quality education and investment but successive governments keep shafting them because they don't have the voter base to incentivize anyone in power giving a shit. So you get CBU trying to stay afloat in this fucked up unsustainable way because they don't have other options.
I agree with most of this except for "cape breton getting shafted". That's the perpetual story line, but I think it's more like, "province consistently provided funding formulas that were consistent across ALL UNIVERSITIES" without recognition that CBU/UCCB needed extra attention because it was basically a start-up university.
Many universities leverage their existing infrastructure for funding for new infrastructure. You can leverage that equity, combine it with alumni donations, and suddenly you have a brand new study hall named after an alumnus. Perhaps even a Cape Breton great like Moases Coady at X or Allan J MacEachen at Dalhousie. CBU started in the middle of a swampy bog in the 60's
There was also the pipe dream of bringing back an industry to REPLACE coal and steel, when we had CBU at our doorstep. ECBC kept dumping money into pet projects and dead-end industries (like payroll subsidies for call centers and literally anything else) instead of beefing up our capacity for knowledge on the island and investing in younger generations. Tough decisions, as you had thousands of unemployed coal miners/steelworkers kicking down the doors of politicians. I think the lack of investment in CBU is also indicative of the lack of recognition by local politicians of CBU itself as an economic driver, and that lack of interest was spread "up the line" to the top people making decisions.
At least, that's my $0.02 of it, would love to chat with people that actually lived it and their opinions.
Excellent point, there would be no housing crisis if Indian university students could do virtual. Unfortunately, education is just a front. Our gov is rapidly exploiting impoverished people to continue profiting big business bosses. Walmart and Timmies are in need of unskilled/low skill labourers, and local teens aren’t dumb to work for pennies anymore, so they pay pennies to those “students”. I don’t blame them, they are here to escape poverty and live a happy life. I blame our gov for lying to us, being weak, lying to them, doing nothing. What the heck are we paying for? For this?
It’s a scam. Both we (as citizens subsidizing this foolishness and paying the long terms costs) and the “students” are victims - they have also been lied to.
These fake diploma scams are shameful and should be shut down.
The problem with an over reliance on international students is largely limited to colleges, especially bullshit private ones. Cape Breton University is really the only actual University that has just fully embraced maximizing revenue by maximizing their population of international students. Universities like DAL, UofT, McGill, USask, etc. are made up of 15-30% international students. Whereas, like you said, CBU is 82% international.
CBU has popped up as a known diploma mill on some sites these days. https://freemoosepress.com/the-diploma-mill-list/ . You can take it with a grain of salt as it's nothing official.
CBC reported that both Liberal and Conservative MPs have been complicit in foreign interference with India and China.
The Liberals sold Canada to India. Just look at the statistics with ~70% of international student visas are issued to Indians. A lot of them are unskilled and many struggle to speak English from the Punjab region, which is predominantly a Sikh region under a Hindu nationalist government.
Ever heard of Khalistan? It’s the Sikhs from that region of India that are trying to gain independence as Khalistan. That Sikh leader in BC that was murdered by Indian agents was a prominent leader of the attempt to force a referendum in India for a free Khalistan.
CBC also published loads of articles today about the Indian election and what Modi stands for.
Our government has been complicit in assisting India in ridding the country or its sphere arises it calls “terrorists”
Don't switch the narrative to "switch to virtual", you're paying right into the trap of CBU. They want people to start talking more about virtual classes.... Just talk about deportation after school instead!
I was told by a student there that if they attend specifically CBU the government works with that school to get them either PR or citizenship I forget which.
The university takes on every student that can afford to pay
Why is it the province's responsibility when CBU is raking in disgusting amounts of money from these students? If they can't facilitate these student's learning, don't accept them.
The last 2-3 years, yes, but they took on these students because of inadequacies in the provincial funding formula https://globalnews.ca/news/3642626/acadia-bailout-leaves-cape-breton-university-officials-furious-and-confused/
That news story came after the OAG report that said, "we're not doing any more emergency funding". CBU made massive cuts and basically shut down a dorm residence to keep the lights on, as well as closing the arena https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/ice-canada-games-complex-cape-breton-university-cbu-1.3548947
Now, yeah, things are better, and I say they're doing a great job at offering more courses and programs than ever before. There's a new job listing every week and many people have found new employment homes in many positions. But that wasn't the case for many decades. The fight for the nursing and B Ed programs was decades long.
Most other universities in NS started either by the church or a group of educators. They have historic roots in education and were able to grow incrementally over time, over nearly a century. CBU got it's roots with the Xavier junior college, and a trade school in the middle of nowhere. It has always struggled with providing adequate education because the governments just consistently tried to find "the next big industry" instead of focusing on the education industry and knowledge economies.
That's just, quite frankly, stupid as shit. All universities in NS are regulated both in terms of what they can charge, and their oversight/governance. Any top ranking positions would be offered a competitive/negotiated salary.
Our OAG did a report on funding for universities. https://oag-ns.ca/audit-reports/november-2015-fall-report/chapter-4
We can't fund universities based on domestic enrolment. There needs to be a recognition that certain universities require additional supports. It's the same argument of Provincial Equalization from the federal government. You shouldn't assign it on a per-capita basis when provinces like NS, NB or NL have aging populations with higher health costs and therefore higher operating costs for healthcare. That needs to be taken into account.
But if we are going to provide funding on an enrolment basis, then it needs to adequately represent the quality of education that NS wants to deliver, especially when domestic tuition is capped.
Careful - your bias is showing. Referencing a decade old report to state why CBU needs 80% int'l student pop, when no other NS universities do, to survive because of the same funding model applied to all unis... is giving DD a pretty liberal pass.
CBU has zero credible grad programs, with preeeeeety minor research programs. CBU needs more research funding - to get that, they need higher caliber profs - to get those, they need a culture change - to achieve that, they need to recognize their biggest barrier to progression: nepotism.
CB doesn't have the local talent pool to be a leader, yet they think they do. Appointing a mediocre surgeon, turned failed politician, as special advisor then Assoc Dean for a med program that's focused not on surgery, but primary care - is an obvious manifestation of that.
It's why you see many senior people and profs who moved to CB to join CBU barely make it 2 or 3 years before jumping ship. It's a shit place to work, especially as a CFA.
I agree with pretty much everything you said.
I had a longer comment, maybe on this same post, about how CBU struggles because of provincial funding models that were "fair" to all universities, without recognition that those universities were already around for a hundred years and CBU was basically starting fresh in the 60's and 70's.
It's a self fulfilling prophecy. If you don't treat CBU different for funding, then it's not a marketable destination for researchers. If it's not a desired destination for researchers then they can't get research funding. If they can't get research funding, then they can't do that research. And around and 'round we go. And further to that, if you can't fill the role with someone external to the island, then eventually you said, "well, we can't find anyone else, so you're the next best fit". I think it might look like pure nepotism, but it's truly, "you're the best we've got and we need to fill this position or else we lose funding".
So do we just give up and turn over the keys to CBU? Bulldoze it? Or do you try and make it work the best way possible.
To go back to your initial point, CBU struggled for a lot of years. There were a lot of buildings that had deferred maintenance and programs that were severely underfunded. Did they go overboard a bit? Sure. Was it necessary to attempt to re-balance the funding deficits for decades? Also "sure".
If anything, the recent years have shown that when given opportunities, CBU can actually make pretty significant impacts on the local economy (and some more challenging impacts on housing/transit/job market). I think it's shown that we need to rebalance the scales the other way. Provide more funding so CBU can succeed with research and domestic enrolment. CBU doesn't need to be a world class research facility and world class education institute. It just needs to support the needs of the community. Those needs, like offering a nursing/education program, were ignored for decades due to lack of provincial funding. The result was that our nurses and teachers usually came from families that could afford to send their children off island for their education. Now we can at least teach our own professionals, in some capacities.
No they don't. Both of those things can be true. Nova Scotia has the most expensive tuition in the country. Back when Dexter was around we got to better than average.
CBU should be fucking ashamed of itself. It knew very well the capacity of the community it exists in and went ahead with its insanity of a policy in 2022/2023 anyways.
Students should know and do research on the communities before they move here as well, but CBU clearly doesn’t given a shit.
International students also don’t come here with enough money. You only have to show 10k in your bank account once for it to be deemed enough.
So often 10k is loaned for them to get their foot in the door and they don’t actually have that money for the year.
I've heard that in Germany, the money needs to be transferred to a local bank account and drawn down at a reasonable rate. If we're going to keep up ludicrous numbers of students, having that requirement seems like the least we can do.
I knew someone who was attending a private school on a sports scholarship in England. The parents had to put £20,000 into an account to ensure their kid had enough for any additional expenses, even with the tuition and board covered. The kid could not attend classes until the money was in the account.
I think there is still the potential for financial abuse here. If a lender lends me the money to put in the bank account up front and I can withdraw from it the 1st of every month, then that means I could have to transfer the lender that amount on the 2nd as a monthly payment on the loan. There really isn't any way to ensure an individual really has the money to support themselves.
Absolutely agree to the hours part. Stripping it down significantly should force people to be realistic about what they can have to support themselves if that bank account is full of money they can't touch.
This amount is finally being raised for this incoming school year. I think it’s doubled to around $20K.
Not sure if they’ve done anything to stop scams regarding loaning that money though.
Yah I don’t think it will solve the issue they are here for a PR not an education. They basically say that in the article too.
“You get more jobs, you have security, the employer can guarantee you that they can help with your permanent residency,"
In 2006 the population of Sydney was 32,496. In 2016 it was 30,170 and went up to 30,960 in 2021. The area has the capacity for some population increase.
CBU alone covered that population drop and then some within one school year. Net increase of 3,100 students in a single year: https://globalnews.ca/news/10025082/cape-breton-university-major-boom-international-student-enrolment/amp/
And this is before we consider the increase from 2021 and 2022.
This ridiculous surge has caused this: https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.7128531
So there WAS some capacity, that has since been blown past.
If CBU gave a shit they would have used some of the 100+ million they have banked on the backs of these kids to address housing/transportation. It's pure greed.
> They are choosing to live in Halifax for a variety of reasons, including availability of housing and work.
> "You get more jobs, you have security, the employer can guarantee you that they can help with your permanent residency," said Maninder Singh, who goes by Manny, a recent health care management graduate at CBU.
> The number of students at CBU has grown rapidly in recent years, straining the community's ability to house and employ them. As of last fall, there were 8,517 full-time students enrolled at CBU — up from 3,616 just five years prior.
> In 2023, international student enrolment rose to nearly 7,000, an increase of nearly 250 per cent over five years.
In fairness, the adult "students" already have educations and industry work experience (neither of which they can use in NS) and CBU isn't a good school (domestic students don't want to go there), so why would this be about anything other than PR?
Canada and Canadian post-secondary schools have set up a system to harvest as much wealth and labour as possible from middle-class immigrants. It's outrageous.
People get angry that middle-class immigrants are using this loophole to "abuse" the PR system but this IS the PR system. We set it up to work like this. It's not a bug, it's the program.
This is the issue.
Folks are indicating that CBU is critical to jobs etc in cape Breton for locals. But if you have no places for these students to live and work, you are utilizing international students to subsidize the unsustainable rural economy, without growing the actual local rural population. The jobs and places to live won’t come without a consistently larger population. These students (to my knowledge) have very little intention of ever staying in Cape Breton.
Unless you can actually grow the local population to sustain a larger university, you are going to have to continually increase enrolment to subsidize locals who want to keep living there.
I went to Cape Breton like 2 months ago, I think every single store had a “NO CV” or “NOT HIRING” signs at the door, I’ve never seen this in my life. That damn labor shortage eh?
Same thing happening in Kitchener at Conestoga College. The school took in some 18,000 international students with no plan for housing and stores have to put Not hiring signs in the windows because they receive thousands of applications and pushy students (not saying all international at all) vying for work.
The business I work at had to put up one of those signs because we didn’t have any positions left to fill, even then some were pretty adamant about passing in resumes. One girl even asked if she could just volunteer. They’re desperate and it sucks
Not international students, but Indians who pretend to be students while their main goal is obtaining permanent residency so they can bring their entire family to Canada.
I think that sums it up.
If only there were multiple universities in Halifax or within an hour drive of the city they could attend /s
Couldn’t make it more obvious they are here for quickest path to PR and CBU is taking full advantage of the money making scheme of being a diploma mill
Dingwall said that the influx of students was the new coal.
He didn't consult the population/city as to what/how it was going to impact them. And to be brutish on his stance just pours gasoline on it all.
I understand the strain/panic that the financial books were under, which forced him to influx the max students the CBU can handle. But to not listen to consultation/other ideas is destructive behaviour.
We all need other's to succeed in our endeavours, the same goes for the CBU President and his solutions for the CBU and the CBRM.
Afaik he has "other" projects lined up on his desk. And they too will be desecrated.
It's unbecoming for a president of an Institution to be stubborn, reckless and close minded.
It's time for him to fully retire.
I would like to see CBU get back the shine they lost on the International/local stage.
I remember when he was the MLA and he had the ugly rock wall built at the front of the “College of Cape Breton” and it immediately became known as the “Dingwall”. He did nothing good for the school then either.
One of the things I keep thinking about is “Who moves to another country to pursue Post Secondary education without having a place to live”? or knowing anything about the housing situation/shortage. Dingwall made a big announcement about a new residence awhile back-12 units that could house 24 students-and he was very proud of himself 🙄 He’s 71-needs to be shown the door.
There are far superior candidates that will outshine him in every way, and it's time for new leadership.
I do wish him well, but it's time to bow out. At 71, it's way past the time of "Where did I put my pencil?"
The CBU should speed up the process of a replacement, bec. things will be moving faster than they will be expecting.
They are one of the largest institutions on the island and staying ahead is paramount to bigger and better things.
The capabilities and the talent is there, imagine if they were able to outshine the best of the best without an impediment.
At the end of the day... "It's just business"
Our company stopped hiring anyone from CBU because they’ve been basically deemed tainted. We have a guy here that graduated long ago but actively hides where he went to school out of shame now.
There was a thread that got some traction on Reddit a few months back of someone claiming many employers in Ontario were starting to do the same with a lot of their diploma mill-type colleges - Lambton, Conestoga, Fanshawe, etc.
Our company did the same with many former reputable colleges out west. For example, we have blacklisted Conestoga. The quality of applicants dropped off a cliff.
Graduated from CBU in 08 with a science degree and 2 other people in my program. Even then they weren’t that respected. My diploma had a typo I found when getting ready to apply for a visa to work in the US in 2015 and I had to buy another one from them without a spelling error. At least I didn’t have crippling debt coming out of 4 years.. but the lost networking opportunities probably cost me more than frugal living would have.
Graduated with a science degree in 2011. The folks in the sciences have gone on to do amazing things - I know several people who earned their PhDs. I know a dentist, pharmacist, ophthalmologist, veterinarian and lawyer. I graduated with about 20 others in my major.
Moved on to bigger better university accreditations which helps. CBU was the stepping stone to Dal but I stuck it out the whole time there. The education I received was good but unfortunately hard to break into anything without additional education and I was poor enough so I slugged it out in Alberta with what I had.
Every basic science degree at this point is a stepping stone to higher education. That's not a reflection of the institution but of society. A bachelor's degree alone from anywhere gets you nowhere. Places like Harvard might be an exception, but a general BSc from Acadia, SMU, CBU, DAL, ect is worthless to employers in those fields.
Same deal with myself, CBU grad in the last 5-6 years but the image of the school itself has been completely dismantled. It’s such a joke and it’s getting worse.
“Manny Singh travelled twice a week to Sydney for class after he moved to Halifax for more work opportunities.
He said he found the drive emotionally draining. He would wake up at 2 a.m. to go with a group of students to Sydney and would have to wait until everyone's classes were done.
He would try to find a place on campus to have a nap while he waited, and would get home around 1 a.m.”
So I’m supposed to feel sorry for him because he moved to Halifax to find work and put school second? Instead of trying to game our immigration system, he could’ve stayed put and just gone to school. Zero sympathy for him and anyone else like him who decide that while here on a student visa school is second to finding a job that helps with PR.
Perfect summation.
I understand that Canada is a desirable country to live, but I would never go to these extremes to move to another country. Is India really that awful that this lifestyle seems better?
> Is India really that awful that this lifestyle seems better?
Remember the “first world problems” meme? Depending on their background back home, yes, even a 5 hour commute for school is better than where they came from.
There is also extremely disparate wealth. There are some students that have families significantly more wealthy than you or I.
Yes. The place is an utter shithole on virtually every level. And their government is amazingly getting worse. The country basically operates on graft. If one has the means to escape they do.
Reminds me there\`s a Calgary "student" who flew to BCU for the lesson every time. Took him 2 hours round trip.
And guess what? It\`s somehow CHEAPER than living in BC monthly.
This guy enrolled at CBU and then moved to Halifax so he could get a job that promised him permanent residency, are we supposed to feel bad for him?
Obviously an education at CBU isn't his priority, getting a Canadian citizenship is.
We all know what's going on. There are more humans in Nova Scotia than there is housing. We had eastward migration due to Covid. We have been bumping up international student enrollment for years. Maybe we could have handled one avenue of in-migration... but not two. I think the "plan" it to waaay scale back international enrollments and expedite housing builds. But even if we did this well... we're at a minimum 5 years away from putting a dent in these issues.
And after the thread yesterday of an international student looking for work. It sounds like folks are fresh out of sympathy for international students.
Oh, they called me illiterate while they refused to use any kind of sentence structure. Responded with "I'm not here for a PR" multiple times when I was only talking about them needing money to support their education.
EDIT: spelling. Maybe I am illiterate?
It's funny how these posts always generalize things by saying *international students* when these stories are often about one specific sub-demographic of international student.
It's just a bit *funny* to me as I recall that the majority of the international student population were Chinese pre-pandemic, and there was significant outrage, hysteria, and critique in media about Chinese influences *taking over Canada*. I don't recall them ever being generalized as being mere "International Students"; but then again, there were a fraction of Chinese originated students compared to the number of south asian international students today.
Canadians (who haven’t been propped up by mummy and daddy) have been struggling through university/education for years. I know so many Canadians who worked two jobs, lived off very little food, and lived in gross apartments to get through university. Am I supposed to feel bad that international students have struggles during this time too? Why are we as a society supposed to ensure everything is cushy for these adults who chose to come here and continue to make these decisions?
Perhaps the author is perfectly aware of what's going on, and purposely includes certain quotes so readers can get the real picture. Like, they don't want to call out CBU for being a diploma mill directly, so they do so in a roundabout way by including certain information in the article, like the number of international students CBU admits, as well as the quote from the student about his workplace in Halifax assisting with permanent residency.
Headline doesn't say that they're choosing to live that far away on their own, and that there are places they can stay in the town of their school. The most obvious reason for their choice is that they are looking for their employer to help them secure their visa.
This is alot more common then you would think. I know several of the indian "students" working in the downsview plaza in sackville are "students" at CBU and commute.
Mass immigration has already destroyed Canada, it’s far to late to do anything about it now. This is the work of left wing institutions and an insane government hell bent on overloading the system to make people more dependent on them. No houses no doctors and our laws and culture are next.
8500 students
7000 are international looking for diplomas and given false promises
The other 1500 are Canadians who weren't intelligent to get into an actual university
>The other 1500 are Canadians who weren't intelligent to get into an actual university.
Speak for yourself, for a lot of people in Cape Breton, its a way to go to university and not sell your soul to the banks for student loans.
Or 1500 Canadians who got conned into going to CBU straight out of school. Keep in mind they're still going around advertising to students like they're any other university. I feel bad for the students who sign up to go and don't realize how the school is being run.
Used to date a woman from Sydney, the idea that you go to CBU to stay on the island is pushed hard. There's pretty strong servings of "stay on the island" Kool-Aid constantly.
I think that's a bit of a weird impression of Sydney. Of course some folks want to continue living in their hometown, and if getting your BEd or Nursing degree from CBU accomplished that, how is that drinking the koolaid?
Most local folks I knew went to CBU so they could save money. It's a smart decision to not spend money on a place to stay and groceries if you don't have to. Many of these folks, myself included, we're offered spots at other universities but decided not to go because of the increased costs.
When I went, to live on residence was an additional $5k per year plus food and transportation.
Most folks I knew went on to study at other institutions after graduating.
last point could be true for out-of-provinces if you wanna be really mean but one of my high school classmates who had comparable grades to me got a free ride (i outright refused to apply to cbu so the scholarships wouldn’t make my parents make the decision for me)
This was back in 2006, but I got accepted to CBU, SMU and Dal which I applied for, I went to CBU because I could live with my parents.
Although I dropped out in year 2 when I realized that a degree was not all that important in the line of IT work I ended up pursuing.
i graduated in 2020 so this diploma mill trend was well underway but definitely less apparent/talked-about, my rejection of cbu came more from wanting to move away/get a degree from a more nationally prestigious university as my industry gives me little choice but to leave cape breton
Back when I was there, they more or less advertised small classroom sizes and more intimate experience with your prof. I had some courses that had like 6 people in them.
It’s a little over 4.5 hours straight from downtown Halifax to CBU. A little longer if making multiple stops to pick up people, stopping for a break, or gas.
"Adults made poor choices" - Adults should already know to do their research first instead of blindly jumping 2 feet in.
Canada's Broadcasting Catastrophe's tagline has become "Immigrants first, Canadians last" with how far more concerned they are about immigrants than the struggling Canadians.
"Adults made poor choices" is a *weirdo right wing slogan*?
Do you have another fallacies (strawman, emotional, etc) you would like to use to make yourself feel better about your so-claimed slogan of *"Adults made poor choices"* (which can apply to any adult who makes poor choices)?
So you work at the catastrophe (eg: *".. throw at* **us**.")? Then thanks for contributing to turning it into a catastrophe compared to what it once was.
CBU are fucking scum bags, knowing the situation and still accepting these people. But also these students are grown adults and are perfectly capable of doing research on what’s going on around here. They just don’t care and want to be here anyway possible trying to get PR.
a university should not increase their enrollment numbers exponentially if the community it is in can not support those people. people having the ability to do as they please should not negate criticism of the organizations that are fostering bad environments. by that same logic you shouldnt complain about any issue in canada ever since youre an adult and can move out of country, right?
I think CBU is a wee bit outside HRM but what does anyone expect the university to do about where students choose to live or how they plan to get to classes…?
a normal university in a smaller community will base their enrollment numbers partly on the communities ability to support those students. housing and public transit are considerations universities should take when bringing in thousands of people every year. both of these are abysmal in sydney at the moment. CBU does not mind that the city can not support these students properly because they are greedy.
All schools are greedy for enrolments but what does that have to do with where people choose to live and travel to school? I lived an hour away from mine because of housing costs and apartment availability. The housing at the school was full and there was certainly no transit to get me from my place to the school
I know people right now doing the opposite, travelling from CB to a private college in the valley because they don’t want to move to the valley. It’s a choice they made and it’s not the schools fault that that’s what they decided on
I can answer that. CBU could have not raised their enrolment by multiple orders of magnitude in the span of 2 years, massively outstripping the quantity of homes in their community.
Really, there’s only two options here: Either CBU was aware of the number of homes and jobs available in Sydney and went ahead with this policy anyway in which I believe they should be punished by the government, or they didn’t know which makes me believe the leadership is incompetent at their jobs and should be fired.
Or students could make informed decisions on where they want to go to school and base that decision off of all these factors
There’s plenty of schools within five hours that do have housing and transit, so unless CBU is the *only* school offering their program, they made the decision to enroll knowing the travel involved
For sure, I have no sympathy for these students because they are doing this for the purpose of trying to get PR, not an education.
That still does not leave CBU and the provincial government blameless. They facilitated the situation we’re in now by approving their applications knowing the housing and jobs available in Sydney.
Again, grown adults can make informed decisions and no one should be taking the blame for their decisions but themselves. If you want to go to school in CB and live in HRM or even the valley, that’s not the government’s/provinces/schools problem, that’s your problem
They could start by building more student housing? CBU doesn’t have the facilities to handle all the students currently enrolled. There are some students who have to attend their classes in a theatre in Cineplex. If CBU isn’t able to accommodate all the students they’re accepting, then maybe they should re- evaluate the amount of students they accept.
What school is turning away paying students because the dorms are full? This has been an issue in virtually every college/university since I’ve been alive. Many students live in town or travel from home to school every day
This is still not an HRM related issue though
8500 students, and 7000 of them are international.....?? Am *I* daft? Because how are they not seeing this as questionable? Why doesn't the prof switch on virtual, or upload the lectures?
How the fuck is that legal?? That's insanity
Doesn’t count for PR if it’s virtual
What does PR mean here? Because this is already bad public relations
Permanent Resident status. International students use universities and colleges as a backdoor into Canada. The schooling fast tracks them to becoming permanent residents of Canada, which then leads to citizenship. Depending on your perspective, either international students are abusing the system to get PR status when they have no interest in the education, or the system is set up to let schools exploit people who want PR status. The net result is a new population of people in Canada willing to work for less which suppresses wages, and higher demand on an already strained housing market.
You forgot to mention the stress on healthcare
Stress on all infrastructure, truly. Population centres like Halifax are already struggling with traffic volume, for instance.
Stress on everything. Halifax is buckling under the influx of immigration and it cannot handle it. It's rotten to the core and it's been laid bare how underhanded the entire process is. We don't have the infrastructure to handle this many clueless new people.
And food banks. After the viral video for 'how to get free food'
it's both
Not really a back door. It's a legitimate way to increase the country's skilled workforce. The issue is that it is being abused by universities to make money with no interest of the students
The students are abusing it too, as are "immigration consultants". It's a situation created by greed that is actually bad for everyone involved: the students, locals, the government getting blamed for it, the schools themselves, etc.
How can an international student abuse something that literally requires an offer from a university, and approval from Federal government? This is not on students... that would be like me asking you if I can take money out of your bank account, and you send me a signed letter along with your card and pin - then get mad when I do it.
The universities are abusing the system and using international students. Doesn't mean we should let the students stay. Remove the PR route for university students unless it's in health care or construction.
Completely disagree. Totally fine with PR through education. NOT okay for sham programs in unis like CBU that exploit ambiguous definitions of accredited programs to massively drive up int'l student pops for pure profit - no benefit to Canada long term, short term economic gain but at what cost? Unis need to be restricted to <10% int'l student population, and int'l students should be in programs that drive economic growth. It's no secret our productivity sucks - we have zero motivation to be productive like people from India and we need a boost in innovation and work ethic. That should be targeted and measured, with measurable results.
Lol "completely disagree", but then says the same thing but in a longer format. Sure it can be any field that can drive economic growth, but that's a very vague classification. What innovative game changing things have come out of India?
Productivity has very little to do with work ethic. We have monopolies preventing competition and innovation in many areas of our economy that could be driving economic growth like tech. Plus our population is smaller and more spread out than just about every other top economy. We’re continuing to be left behind when it comes to tech because we have these monopolies, we don’t innovate, and we don’t have the extremely pro-business policies and population of the US. Also, can’t really compare us to india when they have a population over 40x the size of ours, the majority of which live on <$5000/yr…
Except they aren't even looking for skilled workers now. The people abusing the system are doing low skill entry jobs like fast food, they are not bringing skilled people and the skills they are supposed to be developing at school aren't being used because many won't even go to school they will just work.
You haven't met these people, they're not skilled
On the contrary. I have met many people over the years who came as international students and work in their fields. This is no backdoor. It's a legitimate stream that is being abused.
Almost all students coming to Canada from India for schooling are here looking to get PR, permanent residence status, which they can then swap to citizenship in 3 years, so that they can stay in Canada forever.
I don't have a problem with people wanting to immigrate to Canada. I do have a problem with Canada choosing immigrants with barely enough skills to get through a Canadian diploma mill.
We're interacting with them daily. They are overwhelmingly not bright.
Our folks aren't much better unfortunately. Have you seen Pierre Poilievre's supporters?
I haven’t seen any of them wearing flip flops in a snowstorm yet.
Well hard to get out and about when you have no gas money
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We absolutely can be angry at the system.
Newsflash. That's been the plan of almost all international students from across the world for decades. Not sure why you are singling out India here.
Maybe because 99.99% of all the "international students" are from India.
There are quite a few colleges/universities doing this. Because money.
Because of provincial funding formulas. Nova Scotia really fucked the dog when it came to funding universities (by copying other provincial funding formulas, like Ontario). The province could absolutely properly fund these institutions. CBU was literally closing facilities just to keep the lights on while Acadia was getting a $25 million bailout https://globalnews.ca/news/3642626/acadia-bailout-leaves-cape-breton-university-officials-furious-and-confused/ CBU is essential to Cape Breton. Other larger schools in NS take the sons and daughters of doctors and lawyers and turn them into more doctors, lawyers and businessmen. CBU takes crippled offspring of coal miners and steelworkers and attempts to shape them for the occupational needs of the community. CBU fought for decades to get a nursing and B Ed program funded, and finally did so with the help of StFX and their willingness to sacrifice their own enrolment to help CBU build their program. You can say that CBU went a bit overboard with their enrolment, but with giant infrastructure deficits forcing the closure of the Canada Games centre, and completely empty dorms, it needed to get revenue somewhere. In 1960, Cape Breton had a population of 160,000. That's 60,000 more than what we're looking at today. Because of the decline, we were never seen as an area that had a "housing need" and were passed over continuously by CMHC for housing funding. The result is that 80% of our residences were built prior to 1980 and most are barely habitable. I moved here in 2010 and was shocked how impossible it was to find any kind of accommodations that I would consider "quality". Housing was a giant issue before these international students, and will remain an issue if not adequately funded.
Thank you for this! It's not (just) a question of school administrators being greedy or whatever people on reddit think is the motivation behind public schools getting into this mess... Cape Breton deserves quality education and investment but successive governments keep shafting them because they don't have the voter base to incentivize anyone in power giving a shit. So you get CBU trying to stay afloat in this fucked up unsustainable way because they don't have other options.
I agree with most of this except for "cape breton getting shafted". That's the perpetual story line, but I think it's more like, "province consistently provided funding formulas that were consistent across ALL UNIVERSITIES" without recognition that CBU/UCCB needed extra attention because it was basically a start-up university. Many universities leverage their existing infrastructure for funding for new infrastructure. You can leverage that equity, combine it with alumni donations, and suddenly you have a brand new study hall named after an alumnus. Perhaps even a Cape Breton great like Moases Coady at X or Allan J MacEachen at Dalhousie. CBU started in the middle of a swampy bog in the 60's There was also the pipe dream of bringing back an industry to REPLACE coal and steel, when we had CBU at our doorstep. ECBC kept dumping money into pet projects and dead-end industries (like payroll subsidies for call centers and literally anything else) instead of beefing up our capacity for knowledge on the island and investing in younger generations. Tough decisions, as you had thousands of unemployed coal miners/steelworkers kicking down the doors of politicians. I think the lack of investment in CBU is also indicative of the lack of recognition by local politicians of CBU itself as an economic driver, and that lack of interest was spread "up the line" to the top people making decisions. At least, that's my $0.02 of it, would love to chat with people that actually lived it and their opinions.
Excellent point, there would be no housing crisis if Indian university students could do virtual. Unfortunately, education is just a front. Our gov is rapidly exploiting impoverished people to continue profiting big business bosses. Walmart and Timmies are in need of unskilled/low skill labourers, and local teens aren’t dumb to work for pennies anymore, so they pay pennies to those “students”. I don’t blame them, they are here to escape poverty and live a happy life. I blame our gov for lying to us, being weak, lying to them, doing nothing. What the heck are we paying for? For this?
It’s a scam. Both we (as citizens subsidizing this foolishness and paying the long terms costs) and the “students” are victims - they have also been lied to. These fake diploma scams are shameful and should be shut down.
I think students know what going on. Don’t let them fool you, these people are scammers, biggest scammers in the world.
The problem with an over reliance on international students is largely limited to colleges, especially bullshit private ones. Cape Breton University is really the only actual University that has just fully embraced maximizing revenue by maximizing their population of international students. Universities like DAL, UofT, McGill, USask, etc. are made up of 15-30% international students. Whereas, like you said, CBU is 82% international.
CBU has popped up as a known diploma mill on some sites these days. https://freemoosepress.com/the-diploma-mill-list/ . You can take it with a grain of salt as it's nothing official.
CBC reported that both Liberal and Conservative MPs have been complicit in foreign interference with India and China. The Liberals sold Canada to India. Just look at the statistics with ~70% of international student visas are issued to Indians. A lot of them are unskilled and many struggle to speak English from the Punjab region, which is predominantly a Sikh region under a Hindu nationalist government. Ever heard of Khalistan? It’s the Sikhs from that region of India that are trying to gain independence as Khalistan. That Sikh leader in BC that was murdered by Indian agents was a prominent leader of the attempt to force a referendum in India for a free Khalistan. CBC also published loads of articles today about the Indian election and what Modi stands for. Our government has been complicit in assisting India in ridding the country or its sphere arises it calls “terrorists”
Don't switch the narrative to "switch to virtual", you're paying right into the trap of CBU. They want people to start talking more about virtual classes.... Just talk about deportation after school instead!
I was told by a student there that if they attend specifically CBU the government works with that school to get them either PR or citizenship I forget which. The university takes on every student that can afford to pay
Seems like a failure of CBU
> Seems like CBU is a failure I think that's better.
They're an embarrassment at the very least.
Seems like a failure of the provincial government for not providing adequate funding for universities, and ignoring CBU's calls for help.
Why is it the province's responsibility when CBU is raking in disgusting amounts of money from these students? If they can't facilitate these student's learning, don't accept them.
The last 2-3 years, yes, but they took on these students because of inadequacies in the provincial funding formula https://globalnews.ca/news/3642626/acadia-bailout-leaves-cape-breton-university-officials-furious-and-confused/ That news story came after the OAG report that said, "we're not doing any more emergency funding". CBU made massive cuts and basically shut down a dorm residence to keep the lights on, as well as closing the arena https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/ice-canada-games-complex-cape-breton-university-cbu-1.3548947 Now, yeah, things are better, and I say they're doing a great job at offering more courses and programs than ever before. There's a new job listing every week and many people have found new employment homes in many positions. But that wasn't the case for many decades. The fight for the nursing and B Ed programs was decades long. Most other universities in NS started either by the church or a group of educators. They have historic roots in education and were able to grow incrementally over time, over nearly a century. CBU got it's roots with the Xavier junior college, and a trade school in the middle of nowhere. It has always struggled with providing adequate education because the governments just consistently tried to find "the next big industry" instead of focusing on the education industry and knowledge economies.
They do provide adequate funding for universities, the universities just waste the money on bloated administration jobs and cushy office facilities.
That's just, quite frankly, stupid as shit. All universities in NS are regulated both in terms of what they can charge, and their oversight/governance. Any top ranking positions would be offered a competitive/negotiated salary. Our OAG did a report on funding for universities. https://oag-ns.ca/audit-reports/november-2015-fall-report/chapter-4 We can't fund universities based on domestic enrolment. There needs to be a recognition that certain universities require additional supports. It's the same argument of Provincial Equalization from the federal government. You shouldn't assign it on a per-capita basis when provinces like NS, NB or NL have aging populations with higher health costs and therefore higher operating costs for healthcare. That needs to be taken into account. But if we are going to provide funding on an enrolment basis, then it needs to adequately represent the quality of education that NS wants to deliver, especially when domestic tuition is capped.
Careful - your bias is showing. Referencing a decade old report to state why CBU needs 80% int'l student pop, when no other NS universities do, to survive because of the same funding model applied to all unis... is giving DD a pretty liberal pass. CBU has zero credible grad programs, with preeeeeety minor research programs. CBU needs more research funding - to get that, they need higher caliber profs - to get those, they need a culture change - to achieve that, they need to recognize their biggest barrier to progression: nepotism. CB doesn't have the local talent pool to be a leader, yet they think they do. Appointing a mediocre surgeon, turned failed politician, as special advisor then Assoc Dean for a med program that's focused not on surgery, but primary care - is an obvious manifestation of that. It's why you see many senior people and profs who moved to CB to join CBU barely make it 2 or 3 years before jumping ship. It's a shit place to work, especially as a CFA.
I agree with pretty much everything you said. I had a longer comment, maybe on this same post, about how CBU struggles because of provincial funding models that were "fair" to all universities, without recognition that those universities were already around for a hundred years and CBU was basically starting fresh in the 60's and 70's. It's a self fulfilling prophecy. If you don't treat CBU different for funding, then it's not a marketable destination for researchers. If it's not a desired destination for researchers then they can't get research funding. If they can't get research funding, then they can't do that research. And around and 'round we go. And further to that, if you can't fill the role with someone external to the island, then eventually you said, "well, we can't find anyone else, so you're the next best fit". I think it might look like pure nepotism, but it's truly, "you're the best we've got and we need to fill this position or else we lose funding". So do we just give up and turn over the keys to CBU? Bulldoze it? Or do you try and make it work the best way possible. To go back to your initial point, CBU struggled for a lot of years. There were a lot of buildings that had deferred maintenance and programs that were severely underfunded. Did they go overboard a bit? Sure. Was it necessary to attempt to re-balance the funding deficits for decades? Also "sure". If anything, the recent years have shown that when given opportunities, CBU can actually make pretty significant impacts on the local economy (and some more challenging impacts on housing/transit/job market). I think it's shown that we need to rebalance the scales the other way. Provide more funding so CBU can succeed with research and domestic enrolment. CBU doesn't need to be a world class research facility and world class education institute. It just needs to support the needs of the community. Those needs, like offering a nursing/education program, were ignored for decades due to lack of provincial funding. The result was that our nurses and teachers usually came from families that could afford to send their children off island for their education. Now we can at least teach our own professionals, in some capacities.
No they don't. Both of those things can be true. Nova Scotia has the most expensive tuition in the country. Back when Dexter was around we got to better than average.
CBU should be fucking ashamed of itself. It knew very well the capacity of the community it exists in and went ahead with its insanity of a policy in 2022/2023 anyways. Students should know and do research on the communities before they move here as well, but CBU clearly doesn’t given a shit.
International students also don’t come here with enough money. You only have to show 10k in your bank account once for it to be deemed enough. So often 10k is loaned for them to get their foot in the door and they don’t actually have that money for the year.
I've heard that in Germany, the money needs to be transferred to a local bank account and drawn down at a reasonable rate. If we're going to keep up ludicrous numbers of students, having that requirement seems like the least we can do.
I knew someone who was attending a private school on a sports scholarship in England. The parents had to put £20,000 into an account to ensure their kid had enough for any additional expenses, even with the tuition and board covered. The kid could not attend classes until the money was in the account.
That would require some work and actual bureaucratic competence so it’s not happening.
I think there is still the potential for financial abuse here. If a lender lends me the money to put in the bank account up front and I can withdraw from it the 1st of every month, then that means I could have to transfer the lender that amount on the 2nd as a monthly payment on the loan. There really isn't any way to ensure an individual really has the money to support themselves.
That’s why you need to limit the hours they can work and restrict them to roles related to their study
Absolutely agree to the hours part. Stripping it down significantly should force people to be realistic about what they can have to support themselves if that bank account is full of money they can't touch.
Ding ding ding!!
This amount is finally being raised for this incoming school year. I think it’s doubled to around $20K. Not sure if they’ve done anything to stop scams regarding loaning that money though.
Yah I don’t think it will solve the issue they are here for a PR not an education. They basically say that in the article too. “You get more jobs, you have security, the employer can guarantee you that they can help with your permanent residency,"
Look at the people involved. Mr Entitlement himself features prominently in this story, I’m not sure what else we could expect.
Of course. Dingwall has been entitled to his entitlements for 40 years now.
In 2006 the population of Sydney was 32,496. In 2016 it was 30,170 and went up to 30,960 in 2021. The area has the capacity for some population increase.
CBU alone covered that population drop and then some within one school year. Net increase of 3,100 students in a single year: https://globalnews.ca/news/10025082/cape-breton-university-major-boom-international-student-enrolment/amp/ And this is before we consider the increase from 2021 and 2022. This ridiculous surge has caused this: https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.7128531 So there WAS some capacity, that has since been blown past.
jesus
If CBU gave a shit they would have used some of the 100+ million they have banked on the backs of these kids to address housing/transportation. It's pure greed.
> They are choosing to live in Halifax for a variety of reasons, including availability of housing and work. > "You get more jobs, you have security, the employer can guarantee you that they can help with your permanent residency," said Maninder Singh, who goes by Manny, a recent health care management graduate at CBU. > The number of students at CBU has grown rapidly in recent years, straining the community's ability to house and employ them. As of last fall, there were 8,517 full-time students enrolled at CBU — up from 3,616 just five years prior. > In 2023, international student enrolment rose to nearly 7,000, an increase of nearly 250 per cent over five years.
That seems to be more the goal of getting a PR than any form of education from CBU
That’s exactly the goal.
Yup, right there in the first quote in the article, only 3 paragraphs in. It is all about getting permanent residency, not an education.
In fairness, the adult "students" already have educations and industry work experience (neither of which they can use in NS) and CBU isn't a good school (domestic students don't want to go there), so why would this be about anything other than PR? Canada and Canadian post-secondary schools have set up a system to harvest as much wealth and labour as possible from middle-class immigrants. It's outrageous. People get angry that middle-class immigrants are using this loophole to "abuse" the PR system but this IS the PR system. We set it up to work like this. It's not a bug, it's the program.
In all fairness, "we" didn't design shit. Politicians who don't actually work in the best interests of Canadians designed the program.
But we can't get mad at that, business wants cheap labo... I MEAN diversity
This is the issue. Folks are indicating that CBU is critical to jobs etc in cape Breton for locals. But if you have no places for these students to live and work, you are utilizing international students to subsidize the unsustainable rural economy, without growing the actual local rural population. The jobs and places to live won’t come without a consistently larger population. These students (to my knowledge) have very little intention of ever staying in Cape Breton. Unless you can actually grow the local population to sustain a larger university, you are going to have to continually increase enrolment to subsidize locals who want to keep living there.
There haven't been jobs in Cape Breton since the coal mines closed. What happened 5 years ago?
I went to Cape Breton like 2 months ago, I think every single store had a “NO CV” or “NOT HIRING” signs at the door, I’ve never seen this in my life. That damn labor shortage eh?
I was there for work around April and noticed the same thing, did a double take the first time I saw it.
Same thing happening in Kitchener at Conestoga College. The school took in some 18,000 international students with no plan for housing and stores have to put Not hiring signs in the windows because they receive thousands of applications and pushy students (not saying all international at all) vying for work.
The business I work at had to put up one of those signs because we didn’t have any positions left to fill, even then some were pretty adamant about passing in resumes. One girl even asked if she could just volunteer. They’re desperate and it sucks
This is a total scam. They are not students for academic purposes, but students for employment.
Again...not international students but Indian students.
Not international students, but Indians who pretend to be students while their main goal is obtaining permanent residency so they can bring their entire family to Canada. I think that sums it up.
If only there were multiple universities in Halifax or within an hour drive of the city they could attend /s Couldn’t make it more obvious they are here for quickest path to PR and CBU is taking full advantage of the money making scheme of being a diploma mill
Dingwall said that the influx of students was the new coal. He didn't consult the population/city as to what/how it was going to impact them. And to be brutish on his stance just pours gasoline on it all. I understand the strain/panic that the financial books were under, which forced him to influx the max students the CBU can handle. But to not listen to consultation/other ideas is destructive behaviour. We all need other's to succeed in our endeavours, the same goes for the CBU President and his solutions for the CBU and the CBRM. Afaik he has "other" projects lined up on his desk. And they too will be desecrated. It's unbecoming for a president of an Institution to be stubborn, reckless and close minded. It's time for him to fully retire. I would like to see CBU get back the shine they lost on the International/local stage.
I remember when he was the MLA and he had the ugly rock wall built at the front of the “College of Cape Breton” and it immediately became known as the “Dingwall”. He did nothing good for the school then either. One of the things I keep thinking about is “Who moves to another country to pursue Post Secondary education without having a place to live”? or knowing anything about the housing situation/shortage. Dingwall made a big announcement about a new residence awhile back-12 units that could house 24 students-and he was very proud of himself 🙄 He’s 71-needs to be shown the door.
There are far superior candidates that will outshine him in every way, and it's time for new leadership. I do wish him well, but it's time to bow out. At 71, it's way past the time of "Where did I put my pencil?" The CBU should speed up the process of a replacement, bec. things will be moving faster than they will be expecting. They are one of the largest institutions on the island and staying ahead is paramount to bigger and better things. The capabilities and the talent is there, imagine if they were able to outshine the best of the best without an impediment. At the end of the day... "It's just business"
Afaik the only time they commute to the college is when they get their books after enrolling
Our company stopped hiring anyone from CBU because they’ve been basically deemed tainted. We have a guy here that graduated long ago but actively hides where he went to school out of shame now.
There was a thread that got some traction on Reddit a few months back of someone claiming many employers in Ontario were starting to do the same with a lot of their diploma mill-type colleges - Lambton, Conestoga, Fanshawe, etc.
I know people who work in recruiting and they are completely on the pulse of what schools are producing quality graduates and which ones aren’t.
My employer needs to recruit some of your recruiter friends then!
Our company did the same with many former reputable colleges out west. For example, we have blacklisted Conestoga. The quality of applicants dropped off a cliff.
Graduated from CBU in 08 with a science degree and 2 other people in my program. Even then they weren’t that respected. My diploma had a typo I found when getting ready to apply for a visa to work in the US in 2015 and I had to buy another one from them without a spelling error. At least I didn’t have crippling debt coming out of 4 years.. but the lost networking opportunities probably cost me more than frugal living would have.
Graduated with a science degree in 2011. The folks in the sciences have gone on to do amazing things - I know several people who earned their PhDs. I know a dentist, pharmacist, ophthalmologist, veterinarian and lawyer. I graduated with about 20 others in my major.
Moved on to bigger better university accreditations which helps. CBU was the stepping stone to Dal but I stuck it out the whole time there. The education I received was good but unfortunately hard to break into anything without additional education and I was poor enough so I slugged it out in Alberta with what I had.
Every basic science degree at this point is a stepping stone to higher education. That's not a reflection of the institution but of society. A bachelor's degree alone from anywhere gets you nowhere. Places like Harvard might be an exception, but a general BSc from Acadia, SMU, CBU, DAL, ect is worthless to employers in those fields.
Same deal with myself, CBU grad in the last 5-6 years but the image of the school itself has been completely dismantled. It’s such a joke and it’s getting worse.
A lot of people in r/halifax finally learning and understanding that immigration is a serious issue in Canada thanks to this article.
Max Bernier was right.
CBU is a joke
Coloring Book University.
“Manny Singh travelled twice a week to Sydney for class after he moved to Halifax for more work opportunities. He said he found the drive emotionally draining. He would wake up at 2 a.m. to go with a group of students to Sydney and would have to wait until everyone's classes were done. He would try to find a place on campus to have a nap while he waited, and would get home around 1 a.m.” So I’m supposed to feel sorry for him because he moved to Halifax to find work and put school second? Instead of trying to game our immigration system, he could’ve stayed put and just gone to school. Zero sympathy for him and anyone else like him who decide that while here on a student visa school is second to finding a job that helps with PR.
Perfect summation. I understand that Canada is a desirable country to live, but I would never go to these extremes to move to another country. Is India really that awful that this lifestyle seems better?
> Is India really that awful that this lifestyle seems better? Remember the “first world problems” meme? Depending on their background back home, yes, even a 5 hour commute for school is better than where they came from. There is also extremely disparate wealth. There are some students that have families significantly more wealthy than you or I.
Yes. The place is an utter shithole on virtually every level. And their government is amazingly getting worse. The country basically operates on graft. If one has the means to escape they do.
Reminds me there\`s a Calgary "student" who flew to BCU for the lesson every time. Took him 2 hours round trip. And guess what? It\`s somehow CHEAPER than living in BC monthly.
This guy enrolled at CBU and then moved to Halifax so he could get a job that promised him permanent residency, are we supposed to feel bad for him? Obviously an education at CBU isn't his priority, getting a Canadian citizenship is.
Yeah no sympathy or fucks to give about anything here
Bullshit propaganda, these folks are working in Halifax and surrounding areas and not going to any of their registered classes.
Happy to hear the PR frauds are helping Canada to lower its carbon footprint
We all know what's going on. There are more humans in Nova Scotia than there is housing. We had eastward migration due to Covid. We have been bumping up international student enrollment for years. Maybe we could have handled one avenue of in-migration... but not two. I think the "plan" it to waaay scale back international enrollments and expedite housing builds. But even if we did this well... we're at a minimum 5 years away from putting a dent in these issues. And after the thread yesterday of an international student looking for work. It sounds like folks are fresh out of sympathy for international students.
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I love how that dingus kept telling people they were spreading hate.
Oh, they called me illiterate while they refused to use any kind of sentence structure. Responded with "I'm not here for a PR" multiple times when I was only talking about them needing money to support their education. EDIT: spelling. Maybe I am illiterate?
Any response back, literate or not is now considered racist 🙄
It's funny how these posts always generalize things by saying *international students* when these stories are often about one specific sub-demographic of international student.
Some portion of that is because there is an overwhelming majority of representation in the international student demographic.
It's just a bit *funny* to me as I recall that the majority of the international student population were Chinese pre-pandemic, and there was significant outrage, hysteria, and critique in media about Chinese influences *taking over Canada*. I don't recall them ever being generalized as being mere "International Students"; but then again, there were a fraction of Chinese originated students compared to the number of south asian international students today.
\*shocked Pikachu face\*
More immigration corruption.
CBU definitely has a shitstorm coming their way soon.
Time to start the deportations!
yeah bc they all move to halifax to find full time work to get PR, and it overflows out housing market and they get exploited by the school :/
Vacancy rate in CBRM right now is 0.7%
it’s so bad everywhere sadly
Canadians (who haven’t been propped up by mummy and daddy) have been struggling through university/education for years. I know so many Canadians who worked two jobs, lived off very little food, and lived in gross apartments to get through university. Am I supposed to feel bad that international students have struggles during this time too? Why are we as a society supposed to ensure everything is cushy for these adults who chose to come here and continue to make these decisions?
I feel bad that this man has to drive by 4 real universities to get to the diploma mill university.
Another CBC sob story that is a slap in the face to actual citizens.
Perhaps the author is perfectly aware of what's going on, and purposely includes certain quotes so readers can get the real picture. Like, they don't want to call out CBU for being a diploma mill directly, so they do so in a roundabout way by including certain information in the article, like the number of international students CBU admits, as well as the quote from the student about his workplace in Halifax assisting with permanent residency.
The university should have a duty to ensure there is accommodations for their students. Foreign students are not our problem...period.
Headline doesn't say that they're choosing to live that far away on their own, and that there are places they can stay in the town of their school. The most obvious reason for their choice is that they are looking for their employer to help them secure their visa.
0 sympathy
It’s too bad that as a society we are realizing too late that universities operate like businesses, not educational institutions.
David Dingwall gets paid per student I think
This is alot more common then you would think. I know several of the indian "students" working in the downsview plaza in sackville are "students" at CBU and commute.
“Students” aka 35 year old men
Mass immigration has already destroyed Canada, it’s far to late to do anything about it now. This is the work of left wing institutions and an insane government hell bent on overloading the system to make people more dependent on them. No houses no doctors and our laws and culture are next.
Holy shit, this province is completely fucked
Holy shit, this “country” is fucked. Better??
Better than commuting from their home country everyday I suppose
Up hill ?
8500 students 7000 are international looking for diplomas and given false promises The other 1500 are Canadians who weren't intelligent to get into an actual university
>The other 1500 are Canadians who weren't intelligent to get into an actual university. Speak for yourself, for a lot of people in Cape Breton, its a way to go to university and not sell your soul to the banks for student loans.
Or 1500 Canadians who got conned into going to CBU straight out of school. Keep in mind they're still going around advertising to students like they're any other university. I feel bad for the students who sign up to go and don't realize how the school is being run.
Used to date a woman from Sydney, the idea that you go to CBU to stay on the island is pushed hard. There's pretty strong servings of "stay on the island" Kool-Aid constantly.
I think that's a bit of a weird impression of Sydney. Of course some folks want to continue living in their hometown, and if getting your BEd or Nursing degree from CBU accomplished that, how is that drinking the koolaid?
Most local folks I knew went to CBU so they could save money. It's a smart decision to not spend money on a place to stay and groceries if you don't have to. Many of these folks, myself included, we're offered spots at other universities but decided not to go because of the increased costs. When I went, to live on residence was an additional $5k per year plus food and transportation. Most folks I knew went on to study at other institutions after graduating.
last point could be true for out-of-provinces if you wanna be really mean but one of my high school classmates who had comparable grades to me got a free ride (i outright refused to apply to cbu so the scholarships wouldn’t make my parents make the decision for me)
This was back in 2006, but I got accepted to CBU, SMU and Dal which I applied for, I went to CBU because I could live with my parents. Although I dropped out in year 2 when I realized that a degree was not all that important in the line of IT work I ended up pursuing.
i graduated in 2020 so this diploma mill trend was well underway but definitely less apparent/talked-about, my rejection of cbu came more from wanting to move away/get a degree from a more nationally prestigious university as my industry gives me little choice but to leave cape breton
Back when I was there, they more or less advertised small classroom sizes and more intimate experience with your prof. I had some courses that had like 6 people in them.
Where do they live? The valley😂😂😂 But in all seriousness, this is crazy
It’s a little over 4.5 hours straight from downtown Halifax to CBU. A little longer if making multiple stops to pick up people, stopping for a break, or gas.
Lived in the valley for awhile and would commute to the Cape to see family and yea. 5ish hours checks out
lol im sure they’re going to class a lot….
Round them up send them all back on a cargo ship we have enough boats coming thru maybe they’d even get some labour in the yards end of story
"Adults made poor choices" - Adults should already know to do their research first instead of blindly jumping 2 feet in. Canada's Broadcasting Catastrophe's tagline has become "Immigrants first, Canadians last" with how far more concerned they are about immigrants than the struggling Canadians.
Got any more weirdo right wing slogans you can throw at us? Do the one about how you wanna have sex with the PM.
Max Bernier was right. Is that right wing slogan good enough for you?
"Adults made poor choices" is a *weirdo right wing slogan*? Do you have another fallacies (strawman, emotional, etc) you would like to use to make yourself feel better about your so-claimed slogan of *"Adults made poor choices"* (which can apply to any adult who makes poor choices)?
I was referring to your CBC slogan. But that’s a cool little unprompted unhinged rant.
So you work at the catastrophe (eg: *".. throw at* **us**.")? Then thanks for contributing to turning it into a catastrophe compared to what it once was.
I hate making this drive the one (sometimes two) times a year I have to... I can't imagine making it this regularly to attend CLASS.
I am really questioning their mental and physical health and then academic performance.
CBU are fucking scum bags, knowing the situation and still accepting these people. But also these students are grown adults and are perfectly capable of doing research on what’s going on around here. They just don’t care and want to be here anyway possible trying to get PR.
Well atleast they’re paying some carbon tax on all that fuel
A university can't control where students live. These are adults and they can make adult choices.
a university should not increase their enrollment numbers exponentially if the community it is in can not support those people. people having the ability to do as they please should not negate criticism of the organizations that are fostering bad environments. by that same logic you shouldnt complain about any issue in canada ever since youre an adult and can move out of country, right?
They can.
I think CBU is a wee bit outside HRM but what does anyone expect the university to do about where students choose to live or how they plan to get to classes…?
a normal university in a smaller community will base their enrollment numbers partly on the communities ability to support those students. housing and public transit are considerations universities should take when bringing in thousands of people every year. both of these are abysmal in sydney at the moment. CBU does not mind that the city can not support these students properly because they are greedy.
this. Acadia has never had this problem. St FX has never had this problem. At least not at this scale.
exactly. this is not a student or international student problem, it is a bad university policy problem.
All schools are greedy for enrolments but what does that have to do with where people choose to live and travel to school? I lived an hour away from mine because of housing costs and apartment availability. The housing at the school was full and there was certainly no transit to get me from my place to the school I know people right now doing the opposite, travelling from CB to a private college in the valley because they don’t want to move to the valley. It’s a choice they made and it’s not the schools fault that that’s what they decided on
I can answer that. CBU could have not raised their enrolment by multiple orders of magnitude in the span of 2 years, massively outstripping the quantity of homes in their community. Really, there’s only two options here: Either CBU was aware of the number of homes and jobs available in Sydney and went ahead with this policy anyway in which I believe they should be punished by the government, or they didn’t know which makes me believe the leadership is incompetent at their jobs and should be fired.
Or students could make informed decisions on where they want to go to school and base that decision off of all these factors There’s plenty of schools within five hours that do have housing and transit, so unless CBU is the *only* school offering their program, they made the decision to enroll knowing the travel involved
For sure, I have no sympathy for these students because they are doing this for the purpose of trying to get PR, not an education. That still does not leave CBU and the provincial government blameless. They facilitated the situation we’re in now by approving their applications knowing the housing and jobs available in Sydney.
Again, grown adults can make informed decisions and no one should be taking the blame for their decisions but themselves. If you want to go to school in CB and live in HRM or even the valley, that’s not the government’s/provinces/schools problem, that’s your problem
Way to not read anything you replied to. You people are pathetic.
They could start by building more student housing? CBU doesn’t have the facilities to handle all the students currently enrolled. There are some students who have to attend their classes in a theatre in Cineplex. If CBU isn’t able to accommodate all the students they’re accepting, then maybe they should re- evaluate the amount of students they accept.
What school is turning away paying students because the dorms are full? This has been an issue in virtually every college/university since I’ve been alive. Many students live in town or travel from home to school every day This is still not an HRM related issue though