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By Bala Yogesh and Stuart Neatby

B.C. colleges are spending millions luring international students to the province, leading to a growing windfall for loosely regulated overseas recruiters who often take a cut of the proceeds, and sometimes even extort foreign students and their families.

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The province’s public and private colleges often rely on a cross-border network of recruiting agents and international schools to supply them with undergraduate students willing to pay tuition fees that are often three to four times higher than what domestic students pay.

Budget figures for several post-secondary institutions show that their spending on recruiting international students has soared in recent years.

In its proposed budget for 2017-18, Langara College has allocated $1.672 million for international agent fees — more than triple the figure from two years ago. Douglas College, meanwhile, paid more than $1.1 million on agent commissions for the 2015-16 year compared to $575,000 in its 2013-14 budget. Between 2014 and 2016, the travel budget for Douglas International, the department that deals with recruitment of international students for the college, jumped from $122,000 to $300,000.