Amid freezing temperatures in Canada, Indian international students are protesting in front of Algoma University. They are demanding an external investigation into “unfair enrolment and grading practices”. The international students, who are facing charges of cheating, failed their course exams.
The protest, which was started by a group of IT students, drew support from people from three other classes, bringing to focus larger issues with Canada’s international student policy.
Despite subzero weather conditions, around 80 students and their supporters took to the streets, carrying posters and placards with powerful messages such as “Students Justice Now”, “Stop Scamming Students” and “Education is not for sale”. They paraded around the university buildings at the northeast corner of Main and Queen streets.
Their collective voice echoed demands for fair reassessment, transparency, and accountability from Algoma University officials.
“We are not doing this just to pass the exam. We are not liking it. We are not having fun outside in this weather,” one of the protesting students, Simran Kaur, told the Canadian news portal The Star. Simran Kaur is enroled in Algoma’s two-year postgraduate certificate programme in human resources and business management and has failed a management course.
“We are not forcing this university to randomly pass us overnight. We just demand a transparent, a fair grading system,” she said.
FOCUS ON CANADA’S INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS PROGRAMME
With an increase in foreign student enrolment in recent years, the protest has focused attention on Canada’s international student programme and raised concerns about its effectiveness. The demand for justice highlights the difficulties faced by international students in the Canadian educational system.
The protest originated with information technology students who complained of mass failures in an online class without explanation.
In response, Algoma University conducted an urgent review, implementing a “standard bell curve” that allowed 61 additional students in the class of 230 students to surpass a 50% passing grade.
The remaining 32 failing students were offered a makeup exam, study materials, and free tutorial sessions, all administered by a different faculty member with no additional fees.
Algoma University maintains its commitment to academic integrity.
“As a public university, Algoma University deeply values academic integrity. While we provide all students a range of resources to support their success, it is up to them to do the work and pass their exam,” The Star quoted a statement by the university.
STUDENTS FACE EXPULSION OVER CHEATING CHARGES
Some students, even who passed after the review, received “notices of offence” for alleged academic integrity violations.
These notices, issued by the dean of science, Michael Twiss, raise concerns among students, who now face potential expulsion for purported violations.
Lovepreet Singh, one of the accused students, expressed shock at the accusation of spending only one minute on the exam and submitting the document.
The 24-year-old claimed that he only had enough time to answer six of the eight questions during the three-hour final on December 7, having downloaded the exam paper at 9:05 that morning and turned in his answers in PDF format at 11:54 a.m.
Other students, like Himanshu Nagi, call for transparency, demanding to see their answer sheets and expressing a willingness to retake exams if needed.
Immigration consultant Kanwar Sierah, himself a former international student, insisted on a comprehensive investigation, urging the Ontario ombudsman and the Ministry of Colleges and Universities to look into the complaints.
“What this should bring is a detailed investigation into all the colleges and universities across Canada, and how many students they have failed in the last two years, from which courses and, more importantly, how many of them were domestic students versus how many of them were international students,” said Sierah, who spoke at the student rally reported by The Star.