Thank you for your question.
We offer training to all officers who make visa-related decisions. The department realized that there had indeed been certain practices in the past that were problematic, and we had to make changes. That was particularly problematic in the case of francophone African students, partly as a result of certain provisions of the act. For example, we have to determine whether the person intends to leave the country when his or her permit expires. The person must also provide certain financial details in order to be approved. I think that would need to be reviewed because sometimes students are refused as a result of those conditions. There may be good reason to adopt a different approach in order to increase rates.
In closing, I would say that when we present refusal rates, we often present them as an overall percentage. However, I think we should present the percentage of refusals for each reason, such as the percentage of students who were denied because they had committed fraud, for example. That way, people would be able to understand the reason for the refusal and would have a better understanding of the percentages.