JANUARY 23, 2007: THE SCARBOROUGH MIRROR

The city's licensing and standards committee has agreed to examine options for regulating international schools of learning in an effort to prevent foreign students from being conned out of thousands of dollars in phoney tuition fees. Committee members approved a motion by Ward 39 Councillor Mike Del Grande (Scarborough Agincourt) asking staff to report on the matter.

"I'm asking that we license these international schools where they induce students from overseas to come over here, (the students) pay a ton of money, are promised that they're going to get doctorate degrees and they can't do that," Del Grande said in an interview.

Del Grande noted that the schools are often fronts for other operations and said students are left high and dry after paying costly tuition fees.

"Now not long ago, I think about a month ago, there were television reports, newspaper reports about all these students that had paid good money who didn't get what they thought they were going to get," Del Grande told the committee.

"They were looking for help. The federal government which is responsible for immigration pointed to the province and said it's an educational matter. The province said it doesn't fall within our scope."

So, Del Grande believes the city has a responsibility to do what it can under the new City of Toronto Act.

"They may be non-residents but they live in our communities, and I take umbrage when we get a reputation in Toronto internationally that we've got people that deceive students with a marketing ploy to basically take their money and not come across," he said.

Staff has been asked to report back to the committee in October on a strategy to allow for a licensing regime and enforcement protocol for international schools of learning, which specifically encourage the recruitment of foreign students.