Thursday, November 25, 2004

Fee hike - Discriminating!

I have lots to say. In fact, I wish my voice can be heard by the university administration council. Two days ago, I received an email from the international center informing me of a proposed increase of 23.5% in international tuition fees. It seemed like any other ordinary email to me but that percentage whirled around me like an annoying fly. I was distraught. Do they even have any idea what they are doing to us?

It is unfair. We never complained about the existing high differential fee that we pay as international students. I, myself, pay a differential fee of $CAD8000 and now they want to increase it by 23.5%? Are we some kind of piggy bank that the university can just grab some money when they need to? I pay triple the amount to sit in the same class as my Canadian counterparts, to learn from the same professor who does not even know what she is babbling in front of class, I even pay triple the amount of any glassware that I break in chemistry labs. What more do they want?

There was a meeting with the Student Union's president today and with him present was the Dean of Students. The Student's Union should be given credit for coming out to help us relay our anger and remarks to the higher authorities in the first budget council meeting tomorrow. And, there were many constructive feedback being given. Personally, I gave a different reason than anyone else but I think because I did want to waste too much time explaining it in detailed, I summarized it too quick. Nevertheless, it felt good to see 100 other international students attending the meeting, working together to protest the bias treatment that is being projected towards us.

The argument revolved around three main reasons why the fee hike is being implemented:

1. Alberta taxpayers are not happy that the government is subsidizing part of our education. They are not happy that part of their money is going to fund some of our education. Therefore, we are required to pay the full cost of tuition, which sums up to $CAD 23,000 in the end because we are international students and that we are nothing but foreigners who bring no benefits.

2. It was said that the higher a tuition fee is, the impression that the university is a better institution of higher education holds, pertaining to the fact that people are paying more for its higher quality.

3. Citizens of Alberta (or Canada) are not happy with the fact that university is letting in too many international students. We, apparently, are taking up the seats that could have been available for their children. So, they should be given priority - NOT US.

Look at these three points. Absolutely absurd. Another side reason to this is that Alberta wants to be a debt-free province. However, trying to fix your country's or province's financial strains at the cost of others is not right! In fact, it shows how the government is contradicting its previous claims that Canada is very interested in investing in foreign students. In a nutshell, we are being ridiculed and harrassed because of such an implementation!

The first impression I had was obvious - the university is discriminating international students. By implementing such a rise ONLY to international students does not justify the fact that we should be happy because we are able to seek international experience here for the amount that we pay. Apparently, we are "told" to be grateful about it. There were several Canadians who gave crude and disrespectful remarks about this. Those ignorant people said that we should be grateful and if we are not happy with it, we should not even have come here at all. I could not comprehend the stupidity. They may have that much money. They may be citizens of Canada. But they will fall as a province and even as a country when we all leave their so-called "land of immigrants." Why? Simply because we foreigners are no longer bringing in extra income to their country!

There were very good points by several people in the meeting. One, that I particularly liked was the fact that we don't get any benefits - co-op opportunites, bursaries, scholarships, off-campus work - but we pay a differential fee triple of what the locals pay. Can the university tell us where that amount of money has gone? To the new buildings, which I do not see any need for since we have so much space to house every student for lectures and labs? Research work - each time I open the university's homepage, I read news of millions of dollars being given to researches. Is that where my money went to? Does it EVEN benefit me? If it doesn't, can the university tell me what did they use it for that could benefit us? More facilities - oh, like what? Nice pavements to walk on? More lighting to keep the university going? Hell, I am paying triple the amount just to walk on the same brightly-lit hallways as the Canadians?

An excuse such as reason # 2 & #3 is not even worth 0.001% to take into consideration. I do not understand how the locals are still not satisfied with the amount we are paying at school. They pay so much less and they have more privilages. Look at us, we can harldy find jobs even after we graduate - what more do they want? The taxes that they pay will all come back to them because they live and work here. The income they get, the benefits as citizens is still not enough? Are they just saying we should leave? This reminds me of the time when this guy called me, "Chinese bitch - go back to where you come from!" Although he was drunk, but he must have had that stereotype all this while for him to say it even when he was drunk.

Yeah, we can leave. No problem. We will just watch how you seek your revenues and spur up your economy when you have no one interested in coming to your country due to its bias attitude.

And, if you want to make your instituion recognized or satisfy your citizens who were not happy with us taking up the seats in university - do so by raising your standards and entry requirements NOT by raising fees. In that case, we will not mind paying for that amount (but it still has to be justified by the opportunities that we will be getting for the high fee) to attend a high-quality learning institution.

I am angry. I am frustrated. It is late too. And I failed my midterm (but that is not the point here). I just want to go home. I hate this place. I hate it. So-called Canada being the friendly and non-racists claiming to be the land of the immigrants.
If they want to raise our tuition by 23.5%, they can by giving us free residence and milk. We are not stupid and we are not those that you can pick on easily just because deep down in your hearts you deem yourself the higher kind. Put yourself in our shoes for once - if you were us, earning $CAD15,000 (tuition fee that I am paying per year now) multiplied by 3.2 (exchange rate) is not easy. Come on, you only pay $CAD 4500. What is that compared to what we pay? Nothing. So, shut up ignorant Canadians. If you do not know the pain, don't act as if it is just a small matter because the sad fact is you will NEVER experience it. You may have lived a good life. Others work harder than you to come all the way to your respected country.

Huh, now - my impression of the country has gone down into the dumps.

about me

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Home: KL, Malaysia
School: U of A

I am someone who frets a lot - I call it a psychological disorder. I am constantly trying to escape my complex mind which, very often, drives me and my close companions to the edge of insanity. Born under the sun star Libra, I am greatly affected by a disease called "indecisiveness". Nicknames were never part of my dictionary until I met some people who decided to name me "turtle". Soon, I was representing a zoo of hamsters, "sotongs", pigs, cats, etc...

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