McMaster’s international student population faces struggles navigating the housing market, including housing scams, communication barriers and exploitative landlords.
For McMaster University students, navigating the Hamilton housing market can be a challenging experience. With a housing crisis on the rise and rent prices rapidly increasing, many McMaster students struggle to find affordable and accessible places to live.
International students in particular face unique struggles with finding housing. Fourth-year international computer science student Nisheet Kumar Sobti explained how communication barriers between international students and landlords complicate the already difficult process of finding student housing.
“First, you need to understand how difficult it is to find a house for an international student. Especially if you're coming from a different country and you speak a different language. A lot of students when they come to Canada don't even know how to speak English,” said Sobti.
First, you need to understand how difficult it is to find a house for an international student. Especially if you're coming from a different country and you speak a different language. A lot of students when they come to Canada don't even know how to speak English.
Nisheet Kumar Sobti, fourth-year computer science student
In the 2022-2023 school year, approximately 6,500 of McMaster students were international, making up 17.5 per cent of the student body. Sobti explained that the struggles specific to this student population are real and ongoing, which became most apparent to him during his experience finding housing.
“Finding a house the first time was so difficult. There were a lot of scams going on. A lot of landlords, they didn't want to give a house to international students because we couldn’t meet in-person,” said Sobti.
Housing scams can include advertisements for houses that don’t exist or already-rented properties, suspicious requests for money or false lists of amenities. Many incoming international students are unable to attend in-person house showings prior to signing a lease, making them subject to misleading advertisements or housing scams.
Second-year software engineering student Aysu Özdal echoed Sobti’s sentiments. Özdal explained that despite feeling apprehensive to sign her lease, she was desperate to find somewhere to live for the upcoming school year.
“Until the day I moved into that house, I was so scared that it could be a scam. I paid first and last months’ rent and I was so scared that it would be a scam, because there's no getting the money back,” said Özdal.
Until the day I moved into that house, I was so scared that it could be a scam. I paid first and last months’ rent and I was so scared that it would be a scam, because there's no getting the money back.
Aysu Özdal, second-year software engineering student
Özdal explained that although her lease agreement ended up being legitimate, this is not the case for every student put in her position. Beyond language barriers and physical distance, international students aren’t always well informed on their rights as a tenant and navigating potentially exploitative landlords.
McMaster arts and science graduate and current CFMU community outreach coordinator Sharang Sharma spoke on this barrier, explaining that international students a prime target for exploitative landlords.
“Half the time [international students] don't know what the laws are, what our rights are … So those kinds of predatory practices are particularly effective,” said Sharma.
Half the time [international students] don't know what the laws are, what our rights are … So those kinds of predatory practices are particularly effective.
Sharang Sharma, arts and science graduate and CFMU community outreach coordinator
McMaster does have programs in place, such as International Student Services office, that aim to address these barriers and assist international students in their transition to Canada. However, many international students still face these struggles and are victims to scams and unlawful housing conditions.
Fourth-year international health science student Vitoria Murakami Olyntho shared her thoughts on this shared circumstance and suggested some potential avenues for McMaster to get involved.
“I wish McMaster could take more of an involved role in helping students find housing. Maybe having groups of McMaster accredited landlords or regions where there's kind of a partnership between the school and the housing market…It would be easier to navigate, it would be less confusing and [feel] more trusting,” said Murakami Olyntho.
Not only does this student population face specific barriers when navigating finding places to live close to campus, such as facing housing scams and communication difficulties, but they also are often scapegoated market.
This year, federal government officials stated that the growing number of international students entering Canada has put a strain on housing availability and as a result has driven up rent prices.
Rates of issued international student study permits in Canada have increased by 75 per cent over the last five years. and this increasing blame has resulted in the federal government considering an international student cap.
Conversations around an international student cap are ongoing, all the while incoming international students continue to struggle to find secure and affordable places to live. For more information on resources for international students, visit the International Student Services office.
Despite the pressure to take an "all-in" approach during our university years, minimizing overwork can actually yield maximum rewards in the long run
By Ardena Bašić, Opinion contributor
When you start university, everything seems a lot more challenging. Your high school teachers constantly warned about how strict professors would be, your peers spread the word about how difficult the courses are and the whole transition to this new stage of life feels incredibly intimidating.
With the fear of failure during this rather stressful point in their lives, what many first-year students turn to is an "all-in" approach. This approach could include of studying 24/7, never saying no to a party or social event due to fear of missing out, feeling the need to make friends with everyone and overall pressuring ourselves to put 100 per cent effort into all endeavours, all the time.
While this "all-in" approach seems logical in a world that tells us that hard work pays off, our success is not always guaranteed.
I personally focused all my energy on studying not only in just my first year but also in my second. This decision was motivated by the aforementioned factors of new beginnings and arduous challenges and my personal goals. As someone who desired a job in high finance or law — requiring grad school and the associated stellar achievements — I thought that any distractions or activities taken away from school and work would be impeding.
Very soon, however, the consequences of this approach become clear to me.
For one, you miss out on learning opportunities outside of your books. University is a time when we are exposed to new people, ideas and perspectives that can shape the way we think going forward; when we're trapped in the library all day, we fail to appreciate this and to build integral skills like social and emotional intelligence. As such, this "all-in" approach can limit our personal growth and development.
Secondly, we forget the importance of balance. I do not believe we are ever in a state of perfect equilibrium, but rather in a constant flow with different focuses at different points in our lives. However, making time to go for walks, read books for pleasure and not just to fill our brains, going to events and exploring Hamilton are pivotal to ensuring we are well-rounded individuals, experiencing all colours of the life we are meant to live.
Lastly, burnout, anxiety and stress are real — especially for students; the all-in approach only accelerates this fatigue and distress. Being too focused on achievement, as opposed to living, can cause us to resent the purpose of our hard work in the first place. Once this happens, it is easy to lose motivation and set yourself back, destroying the efforts of your focus and ambition.
With time and experience, I have come to embrace the "less is more" approach. You know yourself best and know how much you need to study for certain subjects and work to maintain a healthy, balanced lifestyle. Taking some time to reflect on your priorities can help you figure out how much time you need to spend in different areas of your life and how to allocate it accordingly.
Once I decided to spend my weekends with friends, breaks between classes at coffee shops and mornings at the gym, I felt clearer, healthier and more motivated to achieve my goals. Of course, there will be times when you must divert your energy elsewhere, like during exam season, but I believe that being flexible in your approach is the key to success in your dynamic university years and well beyond.
YOOHYUN PARK/MULTIMEDIA COORDINATOR
Viewing reading week strictly as a break or as solely a time for revision can be harmful for students' wellbeing
For Canadian university students, reading week is likely the most anticipated week of the semester. It is standard for most universities to give their students a week off classes and other academic engagements. For the well-being of their students, many universities promote this break as a time to recharge, catch up on missed work or even get ahead in classes.
This messaging helps to increase the appeal of this weeklong recess. However, some students have a different take on reading week. Come reading week, students may be so burnt out from the first half of the semester, from assignment after assignment, midterm after midterm, they view reading week as a complete break. They use this time to fully relax and refreshen. As I have done this every reading week I have experienced, I would also argue there are many downsides to this approach.
For some people, this approach can contribute to a sense of overwhelming guilt for not working and simply taking time to relax instead. This kind of guilt is often driven by anxiety, particularly what is known as "time anxiety.” Tim anxiety refers to the feeling of unease created by time passing and believing that it is too late to accomplish certain things.
Time does not halt while we may take a step back from our studies during the week. In fact, it goes by faster if anything. So it's important to be mindful of the extent to your relaxation as readings will continue to pile up and you will once again fall back into the perpetual cycle of burnout.
Time does not halt while we may take a step back from our studies during the week. In fact, it goes by faster if anything. So be mindful of the extent to your relaxation as readings will continue to pile up and you will once again fall back into the perpetual cycle of burnout.
Additionally, for several students, the majority of their midterms fall after the break. With no classes to attend, they may choose to cram for the back-to-back midterms that wait for them the next week. However, this leaves little room to truly recharge and can lead to students feeling even more stressed than they might during their normal schedule.
As humans, it can be hard for us to find a balance at times. In the short run, we find it much easier to commit to one or another extreme, but this can result in long-term dissatisfaction and, in this case in particular, further burnout. Students must force themselves to find a balance during this period as that is the only way they might genuinely be able to take the opportunity for relaxation that reading week is offers, all while remaining successful in our studies.
Students must force themselves to find a balance during this period as that is the only way they might genuinely be able to take the opportunity for relaxation that reading week is offers, all while remaining successful in our studies.
To start developing balance, students could set up a short to do list for yourself every day and resist the urge to pile on more tasks than you can handle. I find that at times I overestimate how much I can get done on a day free of classes. But in reality, I easily get distracted from the tasks at hand and long to do something more relaxing, especially since I have a free day.
Reading week can set students up for the gruelling two months that follow it, but it is also capable for setting students up for success for the rest of the semester. If we just try to find a school-relaxation balance during the break, we would be able to not only enjoy the break itself, but achieve much more throughout the remaining part of the semester.
