(Ottawa) Félicité Kossi does not yet have her study permit in hand, but she is getting closer to it. This Togolese student is waiting for the precious document to begin her training in electrical engineering at the Cégep de Jonquière. She is part of a group of 14 African students who received a scholarship from the Government of Quebec whose permit had initially been refused by Ottawa, as reported The Press Tuesday.
What you need to know
- Togolese student Félicité Kossi received a letter from the federal Ministry of Immigration on Saturday to finalize her study permit application.
- She is part of a group of 14 African students who received an excellence scholarship from the Quebec government to study in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, but whose applications were refused.
- In almost all cases, their applications were rejected “due to lack of proof of financial capacity.”
- The excellence scholarship guarantees them $14,000 annually in living expenses, in addition to tuition fee exemption.
She received a letter from the federal Immigration Department on Saturday asking her to send her passport to finalize her application. She had been waiting for it for weeks and was starting to lose hope since CEGEP classes had started on August 19.
“I was very emotional. I still am,” she said shortly after reading the email. We reached her in Lomé, the capital of Togo where she lives. “I was really happy because this is something I have been waiting for for a very long time even though I thought it would never happen.”
Several other students from the group of 14 excellence scholarship recipients chosen to study in the four college establishments of Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean also received a letter indicating that their files had progressed.
Félicité and her compatriots ran into the bureaucracy of Immigration, Citizenship and Refugees Canada during their efforts, which began several months ago. In almost all cases, their applications were refused “due to lack of proof of financial capacity.” The scholarship provided them with $14,000 per year for the duration of their studies, in addition to the exemption of tuition fees, which can vary between $7,000 and $11,000 for international students.
Read the article “Totally unjustified refusals”
Eleven of them have requested a review and are still waiting in their country while the courses in Quebec have already started.
“The best decision is to postpone until January,” says Félicité, a bit disappointed to have missed the fall term. She had until September 9 to start her classes, three weeks late. After that date, the session is well underway and the gap is harder to catch up on.
“We will do everything to support her, that’s for sure,” said the director general of Cégep de Jonquière, Sylvain Gaudreault, who was unable to say when she would be able to start her classes.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Sylvain Gaudreault, Director General of Cégep de Jonquière
The four general directors of Collège d’Alma, Cégep de Chicoutimi, Cégep de Jonquière and Cégep de Saint-Félicien recently denounced the refusal of these study permits in a letter addressed to the federal Minister of Immigration, Marc Miller.
“With the $14,000 scholarship and the duly proven support of their loved ones, these refusals seem totally unjustified to us,” they wrote.
They were able to meet with representatives of Minister Miller on Tuesday, but came away disappointed from the meeting. Mr. Gaudreault deplored the fact that for the first time in ten years, none of the excellence scholarship recipients would be able to enroll in his institution.
“I’m happy that things are moving forward. It’s really good news,” he said when we told him. “But I still have questions about the process. How come it took a lot of media attention for things to move forward?”
“I think we will have to clarify the rules and especially the deadlines for future years,” he added.
The 14 African students appeared to be suffering the consequences of the increase in financial resources required to study in Canada, which rose from $10,000 to $20,635 in January. This threshold is higher than the amount of $15,078 required in Quebec.
The Quebec government’s excellence scholarship aims to encourage high-achieving international students to study in French in CEGEPs outside the greater Montreal area and in fields where there is a pressing need for workers, such as electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, industrial engineering or analytical chemistry.