Thank you, Madam Chair.
Distinguished members of the committee, on behalf of the Université du Québec à Trois‑Rivières, I sincerely thank you for the opportunity to speak to our situation, and to the challenges and pitfalls UQTR is facing in its international recruitment efforts.
I hope my testimony will help you, on the one hand, shed light on a situation that is raising many questions, and on the other hand, get the full measure of the consequences differential outcomes can have in the decisions of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, or IRCC, on our university, on our region and on the tremendous potential of a generation of talented young people who want to study in French at a Canadian university.
There are rankings we don't want to top. In February, an article in Devoir provided a list of universities with the highest IRCC refusal rate of international students admitted. For school years 2019, 2020 and 2021, the UQTR topped the list by a wide margin when it comes to refusal rates of study permit applications.
I will give you the numbers because they speak for themselves: 78% refusal rate in 2019; 88% in 2020; 79% in 2021. The Quebec average varies between 39% and 48%. Without burying you under the statistics, I would like to present five facts and figures that will help you quickly understand the repercussions of the current situation on the UQTR.
Between 2014 and 2021, the UQTR had a 142% increase in international student enrolments. If we narrow the search down to the African pool, the increase is 280% for the same period. In the fall of 2019, the weight of Africa at the UQTR was set at 65% of newly enrolled international students.
That weight is the most significant among the institutions of the Université du Québec network, and, across Quebec, new enrollees from Africa account for only 18%. So francophone African countries make up an extremely large recruitment pool for our university.
However, over the past three years, for each student who manages to get a study permit and start a bachelor's degree in Trois‑Rivières, nine get a refusal.
Can you imagine what it is like to put in the effort and investment in human and financial resources only to obtain such frustrating results, both for us and for the candidates? That frustration also stems from the reasons used for the refusals, even a failure to respond in some cases. Three main scenarios are among the reasons for refusals IRCC provides.
The first reason provided is that the application is being refused because the officer is not convinced that the applicant will leave Canada after their stay.
The second reason is the officer's not being satisfied that the applicant's study program proposed is reasonable relative to their previous studies and career path, as well as relative to other local education opportunities.
The third reason concerns evidence of financial ability and relevant requirements, which, it should be pointed out, vary by country.
There is inconsistency, unfairness and notorious contradiction between what elected officials and the state are saying in terms of welcoming and integrating diversity and the decisions made by public servants and machinery of government officials. The state, the government and the country want to welcome and retain talent, but the system is refusing to do so.
Let's remind ourselves that the university is a very important vector of integration that promotes the retention of those individuals in our regions once they have completed their degree.
I will add that access to higher education is a very important issue, especially for the youth of African francophonie. Neither Quebec nor Canada has the luxury to refuse those educated and skilled individuals.
For university regions such as Mauricie, Lanaudière and Centre‑du‑Québec, that flow of talent is as important as hoped for. For us, it is a matter of dynamism, vitality and sustainability of development, be it social, cultural, industrial, scientific or simply human.
Thank you.