Universities brace for Chinese students’ return as Beijing orders them back to Canada

When Vancouver-based Justin Wong was studying online for his master of arts at Trinity Western University during the pandemic, he had to get up at 4 a.m. to collaborate with classmates.

That’s because they were in China.

“Many of my classmates were from China and felt they could save tons of money by not living in Canada,” Wong, who graduated last year, said in an interview in Mandarin.

Immigration data suggest tens of thousands of Chinese students in Canada may have returned to China during the pandemic.

But now Canadian universities and officials say they are getting ready to welcome some back, after the Chinese government ordered students taking online classes with foreign universities to return overseas.