My name is  Kanvi Gupta, one of the International students at Kings University College at Western University, London, Ontario. This petition is on behalf of all international students studying at Western University.

Western University recently released its new fee structure for the year 2020-2021. As the whole world is in the middle of a pandemic, everyone has been affected financially, mentally as well as physically because of this. When everyone all around the world is trying to help each other in every possible way, Western University decided to increase its fee for international students by approximately $4000. 

We are living in a time where people have lost lives, loved ones and jobs/ source of income to even earn enough to keep up with the necessities. At a moment where everything is uncertain and no one knows how long will it take it to be normal again, Western University decided to increase the fee for all international students, which not only has affected students mentally but financially as well.

As an International student with no financial help from the Government of Canada, as well as from our University, I think it has worsened the situation and made our as well as our parents life financially uncertain.In a situation where everyone is trying hard to meet their basic needs, half of the students even believe its difficult for them to even come back to college for the following year due to the given pandemic and the financial situation of their parents back home. Western charges international students approximately 4 times its domestic students, which would be considered doable during normal circumstances but not during these times, let alone increasing the fee by an extra $3000-$4000 dollars. 

On behalf of all the international students at Western University, I would request our President of Western University and the associated members/ student committees to please consider the situation.

We request the authorities to not increase the fees for the year 2020-2021 as we all are in an uncertain situation where we all are trying to look out for each other in every possible way!