Over the past few years, there has been a massive influx of international students into Canada. In 2022, Canada’s foreign enrolment grew by more than 30%. As a result, an important question is currently being raised – what quality of education are international students getting in Canada? How has it changed over the last 5-10 years? Today, we’re going to focus on Seneca College, otherwise known as Seneca Polytechnic. From a statistical perspective, in their 2019-2020 annual report, Seneca reported only 7,000 international students, while in 2022-2023, that number more than tripled to over 24,000.

Seneca has often been accused of being a diploma mill in the past, largely due to the fact that they have solidified a reputation for themselves as being one of the Canadian colleges with the most foreign students. This is one of the driving factors for many students to start questioning whether or not Seneca has become a diploma mill over the past few years. Many domestic students fear lowered standards over time due to the inflation of international students – the fear is simple: people believe that colleges are willing to sell-out to be able to acquire high paying international students. “The diploma mill theme is super evident with almost all classes in STEM being super isolating when 70% of the class can barely speak English.”

Before accusing Seneca College of being a credit mill, there are many important factors to understand. Numbers alone are not enough to draw enough conclusions. A diploma mill is an institution that sells illegitimate degrees to students, oftentimes they will scam foreign students out of a promised education.  Seneca College is an accredited institution that has been teaching students since they first opened in 1967. For more information on the history of Seneca, you can look here. Importantly, many sources online claim that Seneca’s quality has not dropped since accepting thousands more international students, which is the primary fear of those researching credibility, as lower standards mean the lower worth of your degree. 

The last and most important point is that a diploma mill by definition is one that is not accredited. Seneca College is recognized by the Canadian government as a college and therefore cannot be a diploma mill. Later, we will post and write about different colleges in Canada that promote themselves as being accredited or recognized institutions while they are not. Please write to us with feedback as we use your comments, concerns, and criticisms to build our blog!