🎓 Sold Out: How BC’s Education System Became a Pipeline for Profit, Not Progress
By Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita
There was a time when going to college or university meant you were investing in your future—learning, growing, and gaining the skills to contribute to your community. Now, in British Columbia, that dream feels like a cruel joke.
Over the last few decades, our post-secondary institutions have morphed into something unrecognizable: cash machines disguised as schools, prioritizing profit over purpose.
💸 Education for Sale
Let’s call it what it is. Our universities and colleges now rely heavily on international student tuition—charging three to five times more than they do local students. This isn’t about building a better BC; it’s about keeping bloated budgets afloat.
And the government? Instead of properly funding public education, they handed over the steering wheel to the market—and now everyone’s paying the price.
📉 Locals Shut Out, Futures on Hold
As someone who has lived, worked, studied, and raised a family in BC, I’ve watched the job market change dramatically. Even with credentials and years of experience, I couldn’t get hired. Neither could many of the young people I know—born and raised here, trained and willing to work.
Meanwhile, thousands of international students were steered into generic business admin programs by recruiters promising an easy path to permanent residency. But what kind of system pushes people into overpriced diplomas with little job demand while locals can’t even get work in home support, care work, or the creative industries?
It's not about racism or resentment—it's about a system built to fail us all while enriching the few.
🏢 Schools Turned Corporations
Colleges used to serve their communities. Now they serve the economy:
- Kwantlen Polytechnic University expects to lose $49 million in revenue because of international student permit caps.
- SFU is bracing for a $40+ million shortfall over two years.
- UBC, BCIT, and others have already frozen hires and are preparing to cut.
Not because they can’t function—but because they became addicted to international tuition.
🏠 The Housing and Jobs Crisis
This international student boom isn’t just about education—it’s impacting housing, jobs, and fairness.
- Rent skyrockets in cities like Surrey and Burnaby.
- Students live in overcrowded, often unsafe conditions just to survive.
- Employers get cheap, desperate labour while long-time locals are sidelined.
- And communities like Vancouver’s Little India are struggling as populations shift without support.
😡 We Deserve Better
We need:
- Affordable, funded education that prioritizes community needs.
- Pathways for locals into caregiving, trades, tech, and creative work—not just dead-end gig jobs.
- Transparent immigration and education policies that don’t exploit people for profit.
- And leadership that actually listens to those of us who've been ignored for too long.
I’m tired of seeing friends, neighbours, and youth in this province get pushed aside while a handful of institutions and landlords get rich.
🛠 What Now?
We need to tell the truth—loudly and often. Share this post. Talk to your MLA. Ask hard questions at school board meetings. Demand accountability from colleges and universities. We’re not just customers. We’re citizens, workers, parents, and students who deserve dignity and a future.
This isn’t just about education. It’s about justice.
📝 Written from the heart by Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita
Follow me at tinawinterlik.blogspot.com, zipolita.com, or on Instagram.
