Over the past two decades, Canada’s public education system — particularly in British Columbia — has steadily drifted toward a market-driven model of internationalization. In response to chronic underfunding and political expediency, schools and universities opened their doors wide to international students, viewing them not as integral members of a learning community, but primarily as sources of revenue. Today, we find ourselves standing in the long shadow of those choices.
What was framed as “global engagement” often masked a financial imperative. Recruitment was aggressive, focused almost exclusively on a narrow set of markets — China, India, and parts of Southeast Asia — chosen less for cultural exchange and more for their ability to pay rising tuition premiums. International students quickly became essential to balancing budgets, funding infrastructure, and, in many cases, covering the operational shortfalls left by a public funding model that failed to keep pace with rising costs.
Yet easy gains often carry heavy debts.
The recent federal cap on international student visas exposed the fragility of this overreliance. Institutions that once boasted of global reach are now grappling with hiring freezes, program cuts, and in some cases, existential questions about their future. Students who were promised opportunity found themselves caught in housing crises, under-supported academically and socially, and treated more as consumers than scholars. Public confidence in education as a public good — already under strain — has been further eroded.
This moment is more than a budgetary problem. It is a crucible — a testing of values, purpose, and integrity.
In A Crucible and a Catalyst, I argued that education must stand as a bulwark against the shallow shortcuts of expediency. That the true calling of schools is to challenge, inspire, and elevate — not merely to survive or to sell. When we mistake financial survival for moral leadership, when we view students through the lens of revenue streams rather than human potential, we diminish not only our institutions but our society itself.
And yet within every crucible lies the possibility of catalyst.
If Canada’s educational leaders choose reflection over reaction, integrity over expediency, there is a way forward. We must recommit to diversified, mission-driven internationalization. We must rebuild systems of support that honor the full humanity of every student we welcome. We must invest once again in the public, civic role of education — a role too long subordinated to spreadsheets and marketing plans.
The easy path led us here. The harder path — the one education was always meant to walk — must lead us out.
The time for recalibration is now.