Of course.
You have to understand that postsecondary institutions are called upon to play many roles in welcoming foreign students, ranging from recruitment to support for study permits, intake, housing, integration and even fitting in with the communities to ensure that the students have an enriching academic experience on our campuses. That may also include support in transitioning to permanent residence.
However, IRCC should consider certain positive measures. First, the department should reconsider the possibility of temporary residents using institutional services reserved for permanent residents. In Canada, virtually all those services are reserved for permanent residents, which constitutes a barrier to the proper integration of foreign students in communities. Those services are not available to foreign students who might have questions about their pathway to potential immigration and who would like to improve their meshing or integration in the community or find contacts with employers or community organizations. Some services are offered at our institutions, but the range of services is not always equivalent to what's offered at anglophone institutions. So there are some barriers. Summing up, to overcome this first obstacle, we should allow temporary residents, at least francophone students, to use certain services reserved for permanent residents.
The second positive measure might be highly technical in nature, but our institutions would be delighted to have it: the government should ensure that data is continuously shared between IRCC and our institutions. The study permit issue has received a lot of coverage. IRCC has a lot of data on the processing of study permits that doesn't reach the institutions. In many cases, an institution learns that the study permit of a potential student has been denied when it sees, in September, that the student is absent. This complicates student body planning. For our institutions, which plan for the numbers of foreign students they will be taking in over the long and even medium terms, it's frustrating to have that planning disrupted by decisions that immigration officers make. It complicates matters for our institutions. Consequently, data on study permits should therefore be communicated more directly and continuously before their studies begin.
Data on the number of graduates who apply for and are granted permanent residence should also be shared more freely once they've completed their studies. Institutions aren't informed, after students graduate, as to whether their immigration efforts have been successful. If they were informed, the institutions could determine whether their programs are appropriate or whether any changes should be made to ensure that permanent residence applicants aren't put at a disadvantage by the fact that they've studied at a francophone institution. Could certain changes to their academic programs facilitate approval of their applications? Our institutions would also welcome this continuous data-sharing.