N.S. universities making allowances for international students during COVID-19 surge

In response to surging COVID-19 numbers, some universities in Nova Scotia are closing down residences and reverting to online learning.

But international students planning to stay on campus will still be able to move in.

"It's a good thing that we still have our campus residence open because there's currently a kind of a housing crisis in Wolfville," said Acadia University fourth-year student Tanvi Dabas, who is from India. Dabas is a member of the student union executive.

Acadia's residences have remained open since September. Dabas said there were fears that might change.

"It's a little hard for students to find houses and, being international students, it's not just harder but overwhelming because you don't know the rules. You don't know how to find a house," said Dabas, who is also a Students Nova Scotia board member.  

Dalhousie University has chosen to close residences until the end of the month, as well as revert to online learning. But exceptions will be made for international students.

"We have made some emergency exceptions for those residence students who needed to return earlier.… We have allowed international students to return to residence earlier," Dalhousie spokesperson Janet Bryson said in an email.

Mount Saint Vincent University spokesperson Gillian Batten said in an email that MSVU residences are open to all students for the winter semester.

Acadia president Peter Ricketts said the university is welcoming even more students in residence than last year — 725 versus 1,300 — and, as members of the Maple League of universities, St. Francis Xavier, Mount Allison and Bishop's collectively decided to keep their residences open.

"We're expecting quite a large number of international students to be arriving this week," Ricketts said.

He said this decision was made to limit further disruption of studies.

"At Acadia, we have a large number of Nova Scotia students, but we have a significant number of students who are from out of province," he said.

"Over 50 per cent of our students who are out of province are international, so we wanted to make sure that their travel plans would not be disrupted."

Ricketts said all Nova Scotia universities will continue to monitor public health restrictions and do what's best for their campuses.