There are more international students being enrolled at St. Clair College.
The school will enroll 12,600 students in September and about a third of those students are international.
St. Clair Vice President of Academics, Waseem Habash, tells CTV News the college decided to expand enrollment after Bill 148 or the "Equal Pay for Equal Work" legislation came into effect in April.
The bill allows part-time, casual and seasonal workers at the college to demand the same wage as their full-time colleagues who do the same job.”
Habash says that change will cost the school an estimated $12-million every year, and that is why the college expanded enrollment for certain programs to accommodate more international students.
"We don't have enough domestic students that want to take the engineering technology programs or skilled trades, so international students will help our economy when they fill those gaps for employers."
But programs like respiratory therapy, veterinarian technician and cardiovascular technology will not accept any additional international students.
Lori Masonville, a second year culinary student and part time employee at St. Clair College, welcomes a more culturally diverse campus.
"They are very courageous students for coming here and learning the language," adds Masonville.
Habash notes 86 percent of students at St. Clair find employment within six months of graduation.
He also encourages any domestic students who feel they didn't get into a specific program because of an international student to contact him directly.
