Relative academic achievement of international students: Evidence from an ontario university

Abstract

Evidence indicates that former international students experience disparities in Canadian labour market outcomes relative to their domestic counterparts. We shed light on these disparities by examining the relative course grades of international undergraduate students in an Ontario university with a large and growing foreign student presence. We identify grade gaps across fields of study, which appear to primarily refl ect admission errors from less predictive secondary school grades. Although the gaps appear related to English-language proficiency, they are larger among graduates of Canadian secondary schools and in upper-year than first-year courses. Our estimates also suggest that relative foreign student quality has improved over time, despite increasing foreign enrolment.