Kwantlen Polytechnic University, with campuses in Surrey, shortened its application deadline for the spring 2018 semester for student applicants carrying Indian passports due to an “unusually high number” applying from the subcontinent.
The deadline for international student applications, and for domestic applications, for next spring’s semester is Dec. 1 but for those from India, it was moved to Sept. 15.
Corry Anderson-Fennell, communications manager for KPU, explained this was done “in order to ensure our classrooms remain culturally diverse and reflective of the global community.”
“We know that exposure to diverse values, beliefs and culture leads to the development of KPU students as successful global citizens,” she told the Now-Leader. “In particular, international students enrich the university’s global learning environment by furthering cross-cultural engagement.”
Anderson-Fennell said Kwantlen welcomes applicants from India “for the upcoming summer and fall semesters, for which the application deadlines remain open.”
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She noted that “close to 90 per cent” of Kwantlen’s international student applicants for next spring’s semester are from India and that international students, all told, represent roughly 21 per cent of the student body.
“For the fall semester only, that’s 3,086 international students compared to 11,793 domestic students.”
Application data Anderson-Fennell provided for the spring of 2018 indicates 1,220 domestic applicants have applied so far. Of the total number of international applications to date, there are 3,213 from India all told.
While their deadline for application has passed, other international students can still apply and so far there has been 180 applications from China (13 from Hong Kong) and four from Saudi Arabia.
She said international students, who pay “significantly higher” tuition than domestic students, do not displace the latter.
At least one Kwantlen student doesn’t like the advance deadline applied to applicants from India.
“They’re saying it’s in the name of diversity and their cutting only applications off for students from India,” said Andrea Mah, a third year psychology student.
“It’s definitely like problematic for me. Students feel like, ‘Hey, why is my school only letting in other international students, why can’t we let in students from India?’”
“I did like contact the student association and they told me they would get back to me but it’s been like a week and a half and they haven’t said anything. I don’t like it,” Mah said. “The cutoff date for applicants from other countries is set as Dec. 1. Kwantlen is a public university and to have a cutoff for Indian students set in September, especially in the name of ‘diversity’ feels discriminatory against those students.”
tom.zytaruk@surreynowleader.com
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