Elmer's English 304 Magazine

Letters

UBC pitches special college

March 30, 2013

Elmer G. Wiens
204-5555 Balsam Street
Vancouver, B.C. V6M 4B5

Editor
The Vancouver Sun

Published: Vancouver Sun, Monday, April 8, 2013

Dear Editor

Re: UBC pitches special college to attract international students, Vancouver Sun, Sat. March 30, 2013, Page A14.

Dear Editor

UBC plans to charge a $30,000 annual tuition fee to international students to attend a college where they will learn to speak English and adjust to "western learning styles." This college will recruit "extremely gifted" students from "local schools in countries such as Brazil and Vietnam." These students will spend their first year in the program and then compete with other UBC students in their second year.

Vice provost Angela Redish admits that "determining the credentials of this new group of students will be challenging." But the lure of $30,000,000 from 1000 students once the program is underway seems to offset any anxieties about the appropriateness of a program that reallocates educational resources away from B.C. students wanting to attend UBC.

About 14 per cent of UBC's students are already from foreign countries. Wouldn't it be better to devise a program that increases university attendance by students from high schools in B.C.? Why scour the world looking for gifted students who can afford to pay this $30,000 tuition fee?

Sincerely

Elmer G. Wiens
UBC Alumnus
Vancouver