OLDS — The Olds College of Agriculture & Technology (OCAT) filled its residences this school year as it works toward its goal of attracting 2,000 students.
As a result, the college is looking at reinstating student housing in another of its buildings, Frank Grisdale Hall, says Peter Mal, vice-president of student experience at OCAT.
During an interview with the Albertan, Mal confirmed the college’s goal is to increase its student population (full load equivalents) to 2,000 by 2025. He said during this school year, it expects to have about 1,850.
Mal said of that figure, about 420 are expected to be international students, including about 320 at the Olds campus and roughly 100 attending a business management program in Edmonton.
At the time of the interview, not all had arrived yet. About 70 students are expected to arrive in January.
About 20 per cent of the student population are international students coming from countries around the world; primarily from India, but also from Nigeria, the Philippines, Brazil, China, Ecuador, Ghana, Mexico and Nepal.
“We were thrilled that we were able to fill our residences this year – both our village and townhouses,” Mal said.
“The college purchased the residence in 2021 and this fall represents the first time we’ve been full.”
He noted that some people anticipated to come to Olds College didn’t arrive, thereby providing housing for some students, including international ones.
Mal was asked if the college is planning to build another student residence, given the fact on-campus residences are full and in view of the goal to increase the student population.
A feasibility study/cost analysis to bring one wing of the college’s Frank Grisdale Hall back into use is underway.
It’s expected that this would provide 85 rooms with a mixture of single and double occupancy for students.
“We didn’t tear it down, so it’s still standing,” Mal said. “It is there, but it hasn’t been occupied for just over eight years. So what would it take to bring some of those rooms back online?”
The college and the town are working together to develop more affordable housing in the community.
“Other than the pandemic, we’ve been on a steady growth curve,” Mal said. “We’ve never had more interest in the college.”
He said a major factor in that interest is that over the past few years, the college has renovated a few buildings, which resulted in the creation of some new courses.
New/renovated facilities that opened in 2022, include the Werklund Agriculture & Technology Centre and the National Meat Training Centre.
The Smart Farm operations centre opened last spring and Phase 2 of the animal health education centre opened this past fall.
It includes facilities for animal health technology, veterinary technical assistant, veterinary medical receptionist.
“All of those programs have seen – and will continue to see – growth over the next couple of years,” Mal said.
Mal said the college recruits international students in conjunction with about 20 “reputable agents, people that we know, we trust.”
They hosted an agent tour last May.
“We call it the familiarization tour or fam tour — and we do a fam tour of the town, we do a tour of the campus. There’s information sessions about programs.
“It helps them so that they’re able to best advertise or recruit on their behalf in those international markets," he said.
Mal also noted that the college hosted an open house in mid-October that attracted about 900 primarily domestic prospective students.
“We are anticipating an increase in domestic enrolment this year as well,” Mal said. “We’ve seen increased enrolment from neighbouring provinces: Saskatchewan, Manitoba, even Ontario.”
Mal said the college is working closely with the business community to help students find part-time jobs so they can cover their expenses.
The college has also invested in the student food bank to help students cope with the rising cost of food and hopefully take some of the burden off Mountain View Food Bank.
“We have a number of supports on campus specifically for our students so that we don’t burden the town,” he said.
“We have a doctor that comes on campus so we don’t overwhelm the clinic. We have a nurse and counselling support.”
He said the college also held a clothing drive in the fall to make sure international students had winter coats, toques, mitts etc. to ensure that they could withstand Canadian winter weather. Luckily the weather has been pretty mild so far.
“We were able to ensure that every international student that came was able to take something that they needed," he said.
Mal said international students “have to demonstrate financial sustainability.”
He said they have to pay fees that are 2.78 times higher than those paid by domestic students.
The cost for programs is $15,000-$18,000, depending on what program they are enrolled in.
"They have to demonstrate that they have $10,000 (Cdn) to support themselves as well as $4,000 for a family member and any $3,000 for any subsequent family members that are coming as well,” Mal said.
Late last year, a meeting was held regarding international students in the community and what could be done to help them.
Participants in that meeting included Mal and other college/education officials, Olds chief administrative officer Brent Williams and town facilitator Heather Dixon as well as a couple of members of the Community Lifestyles Committee (CLC).
Meeting participants were told that funding for post-secondary institutions has been cut by 31 per cent across the province and that OCAT itself has suffered a 15 per cent funding cut from the province, which equals a $5 million loss.
Tuition fees paid by international students infuse $3.6 million into OCAT coffers. However, meeting participants were told that still leaves the college with $1.4 million deficit.
Meenu Varghese, 31, who comes from Kollam in the very southwest tip of India, is one of the international students studying at OCAT.
She’s studying applied science and agribusiness.
When interviewed, Varghese had not decided whether upon graduation she’ll return to India to or pursue a career in Canada.
“According to opportunities I will choose that,” she said.
Varghese has a brother, Mathew, 29, who also moved to Canada and is living in B.C.
Varghese doesn’t like the fact that as an international student she has to pay nearly three times what Canadian students pay for the same education.
“It’s not fair,” she said.
Varghese said in her case, her family helped raise the money to enable her to come to Canada for her education.
She managed to get a job to help pay the bills but said initially, it was a real struggle to obtain one.
She works as a cashier at a local business.
“I like the job very much,” she said. “It’s meeting daily, meeting new people and customers and daily handling debit, credit. It’s so interesting.”
Luckily, with the help of a friend of a friend, Varghese was able to find an apartment to live in.
“It is a place with a lot of facilities, so I didn’t find any difficulty there,” she said.
However, Varghese knows some other international students who haven’t been that lucky. Many that have found places are struggling to pay the rent.
She described Olds as "a small, pretty town with a lot of facilities.”
However, a big issue for her is transportation.
She can walk to college from her home, but her workplace is a long way from there.
Mal said OCAT is aware of students’ concerns about transportation in Olds.
“We’ve heard that students were interested in transportation between Calgary and Olds. We did explore that and offer that to students, a busing pilot program,” he said.
“We worked with our faculty and program teams to communicate to students an option that was quite affordable for students and we had zero uptake.”
Food bank use is a concern among college and town officials.
During the meeting on international students, participants were told that 70 to 80 students have been utilizing the food bank lately.
Olds College has seen a 10 per cent increase in the use of its on-campus food bank as well.
It was agreed that college officials will increase their communication that food banks are to be used in emergency situations only.
“It is not a free grocery store for everyone,” notes from the meeting provided by Rita Thompson of the CLC said.
The college is also hoping its food bank will decrease pressure on Mountain View Food Bank
Mountain View Food Bank will point out all of the parts of the intake form to new users, as there is an area that talks about need/emergency food.
The food bank will also provide numbers of drop-ins by students to the college.
Varghese said she’s happy in Olds.
She said so far, she’s been able to adapt to the climate.
“It is all cold, but I am getting used to the situation,” she said.
As the Christmas holidays approached, a concerted effort was made to bring joy and a sense of belonging to international and out-of-province students.
A “Home for the Holidays" initiative was launched. Members of the community were encouraged to share their holiday experience with students.
Dixon gave them information about Olds Fashioned Christmas and many activities that were happening. Many of those activities were posted on the Olds Fashioned Christmas Community events Calendar.
A need was identified for more cultural sensitivity education and awareness in Olds about international students, their challenges and what they can bring to the community.
It was suggested that speakers could communicate that to service clubs, the local ministerial association as well as other community groups and stakeholders.
“(There’s a) need to widen circle,” notes from the meeting said.
