The province’s Immigration minister is dismayed with word that ACOA is cutting $600,000 in funding for Memorial University’s Internationalization Office.
And Gerry Byrne is calling on federal Newfoundland MP and minister Gudie Hutchings to reverse the decision.
The office provides information for international students to help them find housing and settle in, but it also has a role in recruiting international students to the university.
Byrne says the cut comes on the heels of Ottawa’s plan to stem the flow of international students into Canada, especially in areas where students are being brought in through university programming that doesn’t even exist.
“I don’t think it was a smart decision on Canada’s part,” says Byrne. “The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, ACOA, has been providing $600,000 to MUN every year for the last 10 years. It is the basis on which they do their entire recruitment efforts to their engineering school, to their business school, to the health care positions that they attract.”
Byrne is calling on Hutchings, the NL minister responsible for ACOA, to consider reversing the cut, which he says will have a negative impact on MUN and the province as a whole.
(MP and federal Minister Gudie Hutchings)
“It’ll have a very serious negative impact on MUN, and the overall quality of life that we enjoy in Newfoundland and Labrador. Who are some of these students?” Byrne asks rhetorically.
“They are our future health care workers, they are our future engineers, they are our future computer scientists. These are the people who help grow our economy. This is not a good decision.”
