B.C. private college shut down for misleading international students

A buck private B.C. College has shuttered its doors after provincial inspectors found the school day misled international students well-nigh its programs and act placements.

On Oct. 8, the responsibility revoked Pacific Link College's (PLC) certification to provide career-related course programs, effectively shutting down the college.

In B.C., schools need the certification to provide full-time courses and charge tuition of at least $4,000.

International students allege private college made them campaign for Conservative candidate

"There is still a lot of anger and frustration that [students] wasted a lot of time and money at Pacific Link," said Balraj Kahlon, co-founder of the student advocacy group One Voice Canada.

"They were there, in some cases, for one to two years, [paying] $10,000 to $15,000 in tuition."

The hundreds of students that were enrolled in PLC at the time of the closure have been urged to apply for tuition refunds through the province.

Students who previously graduated but feel like they were misled by the school can also qualify, according to the Ministry of Post-Secondary Education.

Students have also been advised to seek enrolment in another school.

"There may be opportunities to get tuition back — but they can't get back the time they invested, the cost of coming to migrate here, and the cost of living while attending school," said Kahlon.

The province's investigation found a slew of infractions at the school.

Those included work experience placements not aligning with course learning objectives and students being enrolled without meeting admission requirements.

PLC had offices in Surrey and Burnaby.

Their participation, which included folding envelopes and door-knocking, was required for course credit and they were required to submit photos of their attendance to school administrators, the students alleged.

That included an email where a campus director described the volunteer campaign as a "mandatory" component of their digital media course, and suggested their participation would help them obtain permanent residency.

Jansen denied any knowledge that the school had directed students to their campaign headquarters, and said she had no ties to the school.

School administrators also denied that the campaign was mandatory, saying PLC was politically neutral.

In a decision from the province's Private Training Institutions Regulatory Unit, adjudicator Joanna White commented on the byelection campaign.

"For the [institution] to substitute in-class instruction with a mandatory requirement totally unrelated to the learning objectives of the [program] to volunteer for a political party is highly inappropriate," she said.

White also wrote she observed a pattern of "disrespectful and coercive conduct by the [institution]," which included threats to report students to Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) for absences.

Marina Sedai, a Surrey-based immigration lawyer, applauded the closure — but questioned how institutions with demonstrable violations of B.C.'s Private Training Act are able to operate for years before they're shut down.

PLC was founded in 2011.

"I very much want to see the province be much more assertive, even aggressive in some instances where it's warranted, with the certification process and follow-ups," said Sedai.

"[Inspections] should be annual and without warning," she added. "There is no small portion of private institutions that may well have to lose their certification."

Sedai says the closure would impact the visa status of students who were on study permits, and that she hopes IRCC prioritizes renewing their study permits should they enrol in new schools.

Video Journalist

Jon Hernandez is an award-winning multimedia journalist from Vancouver, British Columbia. His reporting has explored mass international migration in Chile, controversial logging practices in British Columbia, and the global HIV/AIDS epidemic.

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