Foreign students stranded after college closed
Foreign students protested Monday after the abrupt closure of the Collège supérieur de Montréal during final exams. Quebec has refused to renew the college’s permit, leaving nearly 900 students in the lurch.
jeather 10:02 on 2026-07-14 Permalink
I looked it up — their 3 year permit (typical length) expired June 30. They kept all their old programs that time but they tried to add a program and add distance learning. They also tried to do something about subsidies but honestly I’m unclear. Anyways the government review of the school was generally fine 3 years ago, so I’m curious what changed since. The Sherbrooke school had a permit until 2027, so there’s something odd.
Kate 10:17 on 2026-07-14 Permalink
Was it anything to do with not teaching in French?
jeather 10:31 on 2026-07-14 Permalink
No, they had both French and English programs, so they were allowed to teach in either. This year’s report is not up yet so I can’t really say anything.
jeather 10:34 on 2026-07-14 Permalink
Here’s the BANQ link if anyone is curious.
H. John 11:46 on 2026-07-14 Permalink
Permits are issued for three years; but, they are renewed after that for periods of five years.
The fact that these Colleges permits were renewed for a shorter than normal period was a clear red flag that the government was already looking at the business model of these two.
Le Devoir provided more detail:
“Deux collèges privés forcés de suspendre leurs activités”
Chanya Sedion, Lisa-Marie Gervais
“Les deux collèges ont fait l’objet de nombreuses critiques ces dernières années. En avril, Le Devoir a rencontré des élèves du Collège supérieur de Montréal ayant été interrogés par l’Unité permanente anticorruption à titre de témoins dans une enquête concernant de faux rapports de stage. Selon des dizaines d’anciens élèves, la réputation du collège aurait freiné leur processus de demande de résidence permanente.”
jeather 12:04 on 2026-07-14 Permalink
They can be renewed for anywhere from 1-5 years, but private colleges with DEP programs are typically renewed for 3 years. I’m not saying the schools shouldn’t have been closed, but a 3 year permit is not a bad sign for this kind of school, which you can see if you check the list over the past few years. (It would be much more unusual for a preschool/elementary/DES high school.)
H. John 12:19 on 2026-07-14 Permalink
From earlier reports in Le Devoir:
“En 2023, Radio-Canada révélait que des étudiants fréquentant le Collège supérieur de Montréal (CSM) — dont le modèle d’affaires dépend de formations courtes offertes à des milliers d’étudiants internationaux — avaient rempli de faux rapports de stage, dans un hôpital qui n’existait même pas, selon ce qu’avaient constaté des inspecteurs du ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux qui étaient allés sur place. ”
Quant aux stages, l’établissement affirme avoir procédé à des « vérifications rigoureuses » qui ont permis de déjouer certaines tentatives de fraudes, dont les auteurs ont fait l’objet de sanctions, précise-t-elle.
Ce n’est pas la première fois que le CSM est dans la mire de Québec. À plusieurs reprises, dans les dernières années, la Commission consultative de l’enseignement privé s’est dite préoccupée par le manque d’enseignants qualifiés dans ce collège, dont le nombre d’étudiants internationaux a explosé.
But none of this clears up what @jeather points out: no one at the Colleges or the provincial or federal levels are providing a clear explanation of what is happening.
jeather 12:44 on 2026-07-14 Permalink
Yeah they don’t go into detail about the teachers — they say most have a tolerance, which means they have to be moving forward at a (fairly slow) speed towards being licensed, which isn’t unusual in a professional program — you hire your plumber or whatever and they take one class a semester while they teach/decide if they want to go back into industry. (Public schools also have lots of them, including regular old elementary or high schools, but mostly in professional programs. I swear we’ve discussed this before, and it was briefly a scandal that was immediately forgotten.) But the fact that they called it out means something is weird, because the numbers don’t actually strike me as particularly low.
Faking a stage for someone working as a pharmacy tech would be really bad, though I am fascinated how the government certified these made up hospital records.
CE 18:45 on 2026-07-14 Permalink
I don’t know anything about this school (I did run into the protest on St-Laurent but it wasn’t clear what they were protesting) but is it possible that it was a diploma mill? I know BC and Ontario are having lots of issues with these types of school that basically teach nothing, and exist to help international students get student visas. Apparently a lot of students can’t even use their diplomas because employers know the standards at these schools is so low that the applicant won’t even have the basics necessary to do the job. It’s very bad for legitimate students and even worse for people who went to existing schools when they were legit because their diplomas which used to get them jobs now result in their CVs getting thrown in the garbage as soon as the person hiring sees the school name.