Chinese international students giving Canada a failing grade

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When 19-year-old Ricky Liu was applying for universities in the fall of 2022, one thing occupied his mind: how to score a seat at a top-ranked institution. Both Chinese and Western universities courted Liu, a dual citizen of mainland China and Hong Kong: he was fluent in multiple languages, scored high grades in STEM and humanities courses, and showed leadership through his extracurricular activities in sports and music.

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While Liu and his peers were fretting over final exams and poring over world university rankings, major shifts in Canada were occurring, with a growing chorus of people souring on immigration and policymakers increasingly concerned about foreign interference.

Such concerns have affected Chinese prospects for studying in Canada. In January, a Canadian Federal Court judge barred Yuekang Li from entering Canada, a Chinese national who had been accepted into the University of Waterloo’s engineering PhD program. The court argued that Li’s study proposal could be categorized as “non-traditional” espionage — a ruling that could have significant implications for Chinese students hoping to study in Canada.

At the same time, Ottawa and Beijing’s crumbling ties, coupled with Canada’s rising cost of living, are reshaping perceptions of Canada among Chinese students looking to study abroad — an essential pillar of institutional funding that pumps $5 billion into the Canadian economy annually.

Today’s young Chinese are coming of age alongside China’s economic ascent. The commingling of economic, social, and geopolitical factors has only reinforced Canada’s status as a less attractive study destination among Chinese youth.

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For Ariana Ng, a Shenzhen-born undergraduate student at Peking University — one of China’s top universities with a one per cent domestic admission rate — Chinese universities were her first choice because of their prestige. “The U.K. was my backup if I couldn’t get into some ideal universities in China,” she says.

Ariana described Canada as a “nice place” but ultimately one that failed to entice her: “Canadian universities and its economy are simply not competitive.”

“Canada has always been second tier for Chinese students” because of Canadian institutions’ lower placement on global university rankings and their relative lack of prestige compared to its U.S. and U.K. counterparts, says Qiang Zha, an associate professor of education and director of York University’s Centre for Asian Research.

“If a Chinese student studies at a top-ranked university, it’s a fast track to a wealth of privileges in China. It makes them much more competitive in the job market and provides them a higher return on their studying abroad investment,” he says.

For Joyce Liu, whose son chose to study in mainland China after being admitted to Canada’s top three universities, Canada’s rising costs were a major factor in the decision. “Canadian tuition costs over $60,000 a year. An apartment rental would cost at least $35,000 a year. Groceries and eating out is expensive, and so are taxes and tips. China’s cost of living is much lower, and our cities are more modern, safe, and interesting. I don’t worry about him missing out on experiencing other cultures. We’re sending him on a summer exchange program in London, which he’ll use as a base to travel across Europe — cheaper and more exciting than studying in Canada full-time.”

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China’s rise

China’s recent status as a global economic superpower has helped spur growing nationalism and a greater drive among young people to contribute to its future, says Jia Wang, deputy director of the University of Alberta’s China Institute.

Chinese respondents ranked the U.S., U.K., France, and Germany, as their top study destinations in a 2023 University of Alberta report surveying Chinese citizens’ views of the world. Canada ranked at the same level of Japan in attractiveness as a study destination, despite Japan ranking as one of the least trustworthy countries among respondents.

Fundamentally, “China still holds a lot of appeal for young Chinese. It’s close to their families and a familiar social environment. They see China as the land of opportunity — even after factoring in (China’s) post-pandemic economic downturn — compared to Canada,” Wang says. Eighty-nine per cent of Chinese international students returned to China in 2019 — up from 47 per cent in 2000 — a group that researchers say is among the most innovative in Chinese society.

As their economy soared, young Chinese also watched their homegrown universities make big strides in research and ascend the ranks of world university rankings, boosting local universities’ attractiveness, says Zha.

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Canada has always been second tier for Chinese students

Qiang Zha, associate professor at York University’s Centre for Asian Research

China’s Tsinghua University and Peking University rank 16th and 17th respectively on the 2023 Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings, above all Canadian universities. Chinese became less interested in studying in countries that they saw as “below China” in economic power, Zha says.

Young Chinese largely perceive life in Canada as less satisfying than life in China, says Nissa Qian, a manager at China Skinny, a Shanghai-based market research firm. China’s abundance of modern, high-tech, and late-night amenities entices “Chinese millennials and Gen Z (who) consider their lives in China to be gratifying. Many consider the equivalents in Canada relatively monotonous,” she says.

Deteriorating ties

From 2019 to 2022, the number of Chinese international students with active Canadian study permits tumbled 26 per cent, from 173,315 to 128,040. Meanwhile, other countries and territories that contribute large numbers to Canada’s international student body experienced growth —  with the Philippines, Hong Kong, Colombia, Nigeria and India, seeing the biggest jumps during the same timeframe. In 2023, study permit applications from mainland China did surge 23 per cent compared to 2019 numbers, however, experts largely attribute the jump to a pandemic backlog and the Canadian government’s post-COVID international student push.

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But Canadian policy saw a major shift in 2024. In January, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced a national cap on international student permits for two years that will see a 35 per cent decrease in approved study permits. At the same time, the Ottawa-Beijing showdown is increasingly reshaping Chinese students’ perception of studying in Canada. Sino-Canadian relations have deteriorated to an all-time low, while only 12 per cent of Canadians hold a positive view of China.

In May, the government released its initial report on foreign interference, which stated that China “stands out as a main perpetrator of foreign interference against Canada.” It highlighted Ottawa’s fears of the Chinese state manipulating their overseas students — and the larger Chinese diaspora in Canada — to back pro-China political candidates.

“Intelligence reporting — though not firmly substantiated” indicated that prior to the 2019 elections, people associated with a known Chinese state proxy agent provided Chinese international students falsified documents that allowed them to vote and bused them into the Don Valley North nomination process to support Liberal candidate Han Dong, the report said. Dong denied any involvement.

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Chinese students are now seeing greater wait times and higher rejection rates for their study permits. “Already, security considerations (are) affecting visas and research opportunities (for Chinese students in Canada, who) fear that their skills and contacts will be viewed with suspicion in the West,” says Jeremy Paltiel, a Carleton University political science professor who studies Canada-China relations.

Around 10 per cent of Max Meng’s clients have experienced increased processing time, with some waiting for six months or a year, says the CEO of Vancouver-based immigration and consultancy Guangson Education. “That’s [a] ridiculous amount of time. The processing times have totally interrupted their plans,” Meng says.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) told the National Post that the processing time for a study permit is 10 weeks and are “assessed equally and against the same criteria, regardless of the country of origin. Security screening is one, but not the only, factor that can result in higher processing times.”

From 2013 to 2018, IRCC refusals for Chinese study permits hovered around 13 per cent annually. But for the last three years in a row, rejection rates have jumped to nearly 20 per cent. The agency said that study permit approval and refusal rates “fluctuate and are affected by many factors” and notes that increased application numbers have led to more refusals.

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But China-Canada relations might “be the missing piece here. Something turned in 2024… my feeling is that (this year) marked a change in departmental strategy,” says Will Tao, an immigration and refugee lawyer at Heron Law Offices and a University of British Columbia (UBC) instructor on immigration law.

For one, the Yuekang Li case “transformed the Canadian definition of espionage. In the past six months, a growing number of people are contacting me to inquire about their security-related delays and refusals,” he says. According to Tao, mainland Chinese students are being flagged for security screenings — even if they aren’t affiliated with government — simply because they attended a certain school in China.

Faced with indefinite delays from Canada, students have now banded together and formulated groups on Chinese social media platforms like WeChat and Weibo to discuss their security screening experiences and wait times.

“It may make them think twice to study in Canada. Students will wonder if they will be able to study what they want and if they can find a job in high-tech fields,” Wang says.

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As well, graduate students considering professional work in Canada are realizing that “security considerations will harm their job prospects should they apply for permanent residency,” Paltiel says.

The vast majority of international students have neither the desire nor the opportunity to engage in espionage

Jeremy Paltiel, Carleton University political science professor

Ricky last year received acceptance letters from the University of Toronto, the University of Waterloo, and the University of British Columbia. He called Canada a “comfortable place where academic studies aren’t too competitive.” But Canadian institutions’ lack of prestige, Canada’s high costs of living and concerns over job prospects post-graduation amid worsening Sino-Canadian ties contributed to his decision to study at Shanghai’s Fudan University, where he received a scholarship.

Canadian universities ultimately “don’t want to see the door shut for Chinese students. China is always going to be a part of their international strategies,” Wang says. But the government’s international student cap and growing security restrictions means that Canada will “only admit a certain quota of students — and some who are eligible won’t get a chance to come,” Meng adds.

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Now, Canada must strike a delicate balance between addressing genuine national security concerns alongside improving its rules and processes to ensure a fair experience. Paltiel explains: “The Chinese state is engaged in a network of predatory practices that will only become more acute” as technology transfer restrictions intensify. Immigration authorities and universities are obligated to filter out applications from candidates who look to study in sensitive and restricted fields, or whose home institutions are affiliated with the military and security arms of the Chinese government, he says.

“But we need to be able to distinguish different kinds of people and students and different kind of risks. The vast majority of international students have neither the desire nor the opportunity to engage in espionage,” Paltiel says.

Tao urges Canada to become “more transparent — and say explicitly whether they don’t want certain people (from certain schools, institutions, or an area of study) coming to the country. The predictive profiling… is a dangerous trend. We need greater procedural fairness and more meaningful interviews for permanent and temporary residents relating to security cases. We’ve seen the harshest consequences for ordinary individuals who never expected their application to come to Canada to turn into an espionage investigation.”

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