In an opinion piece for the Edmonton Journal, University of Alberta President Bill Flanagan argues that international students are an asset to not only Alberta’s universities, but to the province’s broader economy. He begins by addressing the misconception that international students take spaces away from domestic students, saying that AB university domestic enrolment is determined by provincial funding regardless of international enrolment. International tuition acts as an additional method to strengthen AB’s education system, he adds, supplementing revenue with their higher tuition rates. He concludes by saying that international students contribute $2B annually to the AB economy, with many of those graduates going on to live in AB and work in key sectors.
