Petition calls for MUN to revamp engineering work terms, reduce fees for international students

About 70 per cent of Memorial University's engineering students are calling for changes to the mandatory work terms to make them more affordable, and more equitable for international students.

The Memorial University Students' Union (MUNSU) delivered a petition to university brass this week, asking them to implement one cost for cooperative work terms for Canadian and international students, as well as rules around the type of work being done and how students should be compensated for said work.

As it stands, Canadian students have to pay $600 to partake in work terms, while international students pay $1,020.

"We don't think that's fair," said Nicolas Keough, one of the engineering students behind the petition. "We think international students already have trouble with the skyrocketing tuition hikes, with extra fees that they have to pay just because of their place of origin. We think that that is extremely unfair and it doesn't help students."

Jawad Chowdhury, director of campaigns with MUNSU, said university president Neil Bose was receptive to the petition, and promised to bring it up with his advisory council. From there, proposed changes would have to pass through the board of regents and then the university senate to come into effect.

It was also presented to other senior administrators, including MUN provost and the interim dean of engineering.

"They believed that students deserved more and the co-op program needed an overall reform," Chowdhury said of the response from administration. 

Chowdhury said he framed it as a chance for leaders to work together with students, after a rocky start to the 2023 calendar year that included a faculty strike and the removal of former president Vianne Timmons.

The petition also took aim at the compensation engineering students get for the jobs they're doing. 

Keough said many students get a $2,500 stipend for their work terms, which can equal less than minimum wage when factoring in the hours they work, and the fee they pay to take part in the program to begin with.

"That is completely unfair because everybody deserves a minimum wage job," Keough said. "If they're working 40 hours a week, they deserve to be paid for 40 hours a week and not just a stipend."

They also want guarantees that the work they'll be performing will be relevant to their field of study. 

Chowdhury said while this petition is specific to engineering, the same concerns exist in other departments such as nursing and social work. 

"The system here at Memorial is failing all students that require a co-op program," he said.