Update: BC Offshore Schools – Foreign Profits Clear, Benefits at Home Still Murky
Image courtesy Province of BC
Eleven weeks after Coastal Front published its report on British Columbia's Offshore School Program, the province has provided some additional details about the program. However, questions remain unanswered.
As a refresher, the program, managed by the province's ministry of education and child care, enables students worldwide to learn BC's education curriculum at privately owned, offshore schools to receive BC graduation certificates — also known as Dogwood Diplomas.
Operated by privately incorporated companies, not government entities, the program runs on a cost-recovery basis and is not intended to generate revenue for the province. Over the last five years, program recoveries have averaged $4.97 million annually, according to the ministry.
Coastal Front's in-depth report, available here, highlights that one of the ministry’s key objectives for the cost-recovery program is to attract more international students to study, work, and live in BC.
However, the ministry admits it does not track the permanent resident or citizenship status of graduates. That's right, the ministry has not made any effort to follow one of its primary goals, and since Coastal Front's report, it has not indicated any steps it might take to start monitoring this key aspect of its mandate.
Another central goal, as stated by the ministry, is to draw more international students to study in BC.
The ministry reports that 15% of all offshore school graduates have transitioned to BC public post-secondary institutions since the first cohort in the 2001/02 school year, tracking this through each student’s Personal Education Number.
However, "updated" data the ministry recently provided to Coastal Front shows that during the 2019/20 graduation year, less than five percent of graduates moved on to BC public colleges and universities. The ministry claims these are the most recent statistics available, despite having provided data for the 2022/23 school year in other areas, such as the number of full-time students enrolled in offshore schools.
Regarding the schools' financials, the ministry will not release this information in response to a freedom of information request. Since BC offshore schools are operated by private entities, such information is protected under section 21 of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
Despite the province owning all intellectual property rights for BC's curriculum, including its use in offshore schools, it does not seek to profit from the initiative that generates tens of millions annually for overseas profiteers. The province justifies the cost-recovery model with its central goals, such as attracting citizens and permanent residents to BC — a metric it does not track — and drawing post-secondary students to BC, which amounted to only 120 students according to the ministry's most recent data.
Despite the ongoing lack of clarity on how the program benefits its funders, Coastal Front’s initial observation remains clear: the program benefits private entities that capitalize on the province's reputation.
