FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Ottawa, January 7th, 2016 – The Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) calls on Algonquin College and other publicly funded post-secondary institutions across the country to review their international partnership arrangements, in order to ensure they are reflective of Canadian values.
“Students and taxpayers should not be subsidizing international branch campuses that infringe on Canadian values and human rights”, said Viviane Bartlett, Interim Executive Director at CASA. Furthermore, students are concerned about the financial liability and ethical risk of branch campuses as demonstrated by Algonquin College’s campus in Saudi Arabia.
CASA calls on the federal government, Universities Canada, and Colleges and Institutes Canada to ensure post-secondary institutions with international campuses maintain Canadian educational standards of excellence consistent with those existing on home campuses.
Canadian institutions with international campuses facing issues of discrimination and human rights violations have no place within our publicly funded higher education system. “Students and Canadian taxpayers should not be footing the bill to support campuses bearing Canadian institutional names that do not reflect our domestic principles of accessibility”, added Bartlett.
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About CASA
Established in 1995, the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) is a non-partisan, not-for-profit national student organization composed of 21 student associations representing 250,000 post-secondary students from coast to coast. CASA advocates for a Canadian post-secondary education system that is accessible, affordable, innovative, and of the highest quality.
FOR INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT
Matthew Rios, Government and Stakeholder Relations Officer
Email: [email protected]
Office: 613-236-3457 ext: 221
Mobile: 902-300-2102