International Students Say They Were Misled by Private Colleges in Canada. Now They Can’t Get a Refund.

This article was originally published in PressProgress on 1/29/26.

International students are travelling to Canada at great personal cost to attend private colleges only to discover learning conditions that aren’t as advertised – and some say they’re not getting refunds even after their school was previously sanctioned by British Columbia’s government.

Many private colleges catering to international students often work with agents based in other countries who are paid to recruit prospective students to Canada. These agents typically work off of commission, and are employed by colleges to recruit students on their behalf.

Granville College, a private college with campuses in Vancouver and Surrey, is one private college that makes use of recruiters in various countries, including India, to find students.

The college has repeatedly made headlines over student complaints relating to misleading tactics by its foreign recruiters. In 2023 and later again in 2025, the college was ordered by a provincial regulator to issue refunds to students who accused them of misleading them about their program and obtaining work permits after graduating.

Granville College has also been cited for other regulatory violations. Internal documents from 2023 show BC’s Private Training Institutions Branch (PTIB), then the provincial body regulating private training institutions, found the school “non-compliant” on a number of issues, issuing an administrative penalty for an alleged breach of rules relating to instructor qualifications and a penalty for failing to maintain current student records.

Despite this pattern of problems, other former students say problems persist.

Naveen, a former international student from India whose name has been changed to protect his identity, says he withdrew from the college in 2024, a month after arriving in Canada, feeling he too had been misled by an agent about the nature of the program.

The first surprise came when he discovered his classes were entirely online, without any in-person instruction: “They told me there are no offline classes, you have to go with online,” Naveen told PressProgress.

Another problem, he said, was that an agent affiliated with the college had told him they would be able to get a “post graduate work permit” at Granville College that would allow them to work in Canada.

If he was unable to obtain a post-graduate work permit after completing his studies, he would also have no legitimate avenue to immigrate to Canada, and would likely have to return home after spending tens of thousands of dollars on international student fees, which are, depending on the program, close to double fees for domestic students.

Balraj Khalon, an international students advocate with One Voice Canada, says Naveen’s story echoes what he’s heard from other international students in Canada.

“These agents are advertising their services to help you get admission into a college,” Khalon told PressProgress. A lot of these people that they recruit just don’t know anything about Canada and so they really look to these agents as experts.”

“People tell me they have billboard signs up all over the place advertising (their services). A lot of colleges are plugged into India, they have a network of agents that they know.”

Kahlon says this knowledge gap makes international students even more vulnerable, particularly since they rely on their agents every step of the way when applying to colleges in Canada.

“They really rely on them for everything,” Kahlon said. “It’s as if they were family members. They trust basically their word when they say, ‘Oh, you should go to this college or that college.’”

However, once a student has been admitted to a college, agents typically do not follow-up or make themselves available as they have already collected their commission.

“It is a very common tactic because a lot of students, they’re not coming to Canada to study in some two room college in a business complex, they want to come to Canada to settle,” Kahlon said. “Agents tell them ‘yeah, yeah, you can get a work permit’, but once they’re there it’s not their problem anymore.”

“Once the commission is made there’s no real reason for them to follow-up or see what happens with the student.”

For a year and a half, Naveen says he t

ried to get a refund from the college to no avail.

“They said ‘this is our policy, we are not refunding your fees,’” Naveen said. “When I contacted my agent in India, they also said the same thing the college said – ‘this is a private institution and we are not giving anything back.’”

This wasn’t the only issue they experienced with the college, he said, adding that when they finally received his proof of enrollment tax form after asking for it, it had another student’s SIN number on it. Naveen also alleges the agent also blocked his and his family’s phone numbers, and when his parents visited the physical location of the college’s agent, the agent was no longer there.

“He disappeared,” Naveen recalled.

Out of desperation, Naveen appealed to Kahlon, who says he has helped “dozens” of students in similar circumstances.

Kahlon says he has heard of many students who have struggled to get their tuition back with no success, having no choice but to return to their home country, which in many cases is India.

‘I’ve helped students and then they often give my number to other students who also need help (getting refunds),’ Kahlon said, noting there are likely many more stories that don’t make it to the light, making the situation even more difficult to address.

“A lot of the operations within private colleges are pretty opaque so it is not like we have access into what’s happening inside.”

With the help of Kahlon, Naveen was able to recover some of his student fees, but not all of it. Naveen alleges Granville College has yet to refund over $8,000 which they are refusing to refund and hasn’t “heard anything from them” since.

Granville College did not respond to requests for comment from PressProgress.

After attempting to enroll at another school, Naveen also alleges Granville College refused to send them their transcript showing proof of enrollment after their international student permit was set to expire.

“I have no other chances to extend my future studies because when I apply for a study permit they have data in their system (that) I came here for Granville College,” Naveen said.

Despite public attention on the issue and announcements from the federal and provincial governments related to improving private education, Kahlon is of the view that nothing meaningful has changed and the province is letting private colleges get away with “exploitative practices.”

Although Granville College has been accused multiple times of refusing to refund students who have felt misled and been ordered by provincial regulators to refund those students, the provincial government has taken no other action against the college apart from levying minor administrative penalties.

Kahlon says BC’s government needs to keep its word and enforce rules on private colleges that are mistreating international students.

“In January 2024 the provincial government made a big policy announcement that they’re going to put a stop to the exploitation and whatnot,” Kahlon said. “It got some attention, but when I got to the details, I’m like ‘this isn’t anything significant’.”

“Why (are we not) putting in place the laws and regulations to get rid of these guys?”

Kahlon believes the province is well aware many international students are struggling to get refunds from private colleges but hasn’t shown any political will to act.

“The government knows and does nothing.”