Fanshawe College and its Board of Governors have been named in a proposed class action lawsuit, filed in the Superior Court of Justice on Sept. 10.

The claim, filed by Toronto-based firm Professional Corporation, is seeking over $10 million in damages on behalf of all current and former students enrolled in Fanshawe’s paralegal program since Sept. 2020, both domestic and international. The claim alleges students were set up to fail, stating that the College “repeatedly failed to meet the requirements of the Law Society Ontario (LSO) leaving students unprepared for licensing examinations and legal practice,” even after an audit by the LSO in 2018.

The claim outlines numerous other issues, including the hiring of instructors who, plaintiffs said, were not adequately qualified.

“As students we were told the instructors were properly qualified,” said Isabel Koestner, one of the proposed representative plaintiffs. “We were told they held Masters certifications. It has turned out these were ‘online courses’ of a few weeks. We were told they had experience. It has turned out, for example, they had only recently graduated themselves and their main experience was teaching yoga.”

The claim further states Fanshawe “negligently misrepresented” the program prior to and during students’ enrollment. Plaintiffs say they were told 75 per cent of paralegal graduates were working within six months, though according to Tony Trus, another proposed representative plaintiff and a formerly registered Class Rep for the Fanshawe Student Union (FSU), data collected by an artificial intelligence tool puts that number closer to four per cent.

Kyle Rooks, a representative for Fanshawe College, said the College would not comment on any ongoing legal proceedings.

“We are very proud of our track record of high-quality education and student experience for students across the globe,” Rooks said.

Rooks explained the College’s method for tracking student employment post-graduation, stating the current framework does not differentiate between full-time and part-time employment, and does not indicate what rate of international students specifically find work related to their field of study post-grad.

“Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are informed by the Graduate Outcome and Employer Satisfaction (GOES) Survey, which is administered by Forum Research on behalf of the Ministry to all graduates at six months post-graduation,” Rooks said. “The KPI graduate employment rate refers to the percentage of graduates who were employed six months after graduating. This KPI only captures domestic students, does not differentiate between full-time and part-time employment and is not publicly reported by program of study.”

The only metric which tracks international student employment post-graduation, according to Rooks, is the KPI Graduate Satisfaction Survey, which asks respondents who were employed within six months after graduating: “Was this job related to the program that you graduated from?”

“While this self-determined metric does include international student outcomes, the domestic/international rates are not split out for comparison,” Rooks explained.

The claim outlines particular concerns of “mistreatment” towards international students by the College, alleging that students were deliberately failed out of the one-year paralegal program and pushed into studying for longer periods of time.

“Students were told information related to their ability to stay in Canada and also appear to have been failed in the one-year paralegal program but were then counselled into two- and three- year programs, thereby substantially increasing their costs while bringing significantly increased revenues to Fanshawe,” said Eric Gillespie, counsel for the proposed class.

The mistreatment of international students is something Gillespie called “a national issue.”

“Our clients believe it is time to address it,” he said.

President of the Fanshawe Student Union (FSU), Siddharth Singh, said he was surprised to learn of the lawsuit.

“We haven't received any complaints from the paralegal students mentioned in the lawsuit,” Singh said. “We have checked thoroughly and found no records of any concerns being brought forward to the FSU from paralegal students, whether through the Class Rep program or otherwise.”

Singh added the FSU would continue to carefully monitor the situation, and that it remains committed to supporting all students.

The claim will now move forward towards certification.