Niagara College has reached a settlement with its international students who filed a class-action lawsuit against the school after they graduated but were refused a three-year work permit by immigration officials because credits were earned through online courses.

Although the proposed settlement motion has yet to be approved by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the college has offered to compensate each student between $7,500 and $20,000 depending on their circumstances. A few hundred former international graduates from the college's general arts and science program are potentially covered in the class.

"A settlement has now been reached by the parties following negotiations, subject to approval by the Court. If you are a Class Member ... you are eligible to apply for compensation under the settlement," Thomson Rogers, the law firm that represents the students, said in a four-page notice to potential class members this week.

Both the plaintiffs and the college declined to comment on the proposed settlement, noting the matter is still before the court.

The class-action lawsuit was initiated in 2015 by Anish Goyal and Chintan Zankat on behalf of a host of affected classmates after they enrolled in a four-month program.

They claimed Niagara College and its representatives led them to believe that by completing the mostly online general arts and science diploma transfer program, after completing one year of graduate or post-graduate schooling in Canada, they would qualify for post-graduate, three-year work permits.

But the students later learned the Niagara College program didn't meet the federal Immigration Department's work permit requirements because the program was considered distance learning. The lawsuit claimed the school should have known that before it marketed the program to the students.

According to the Immigration Department, the number of international students in Canada has grown by 73 per cent to 572,000 since 2014 when immigration policy changes made it easier for students who study at publicly funded institutions to work and apply for permanent residency.

Price of Admission, an ongoing series by the Toronto Star and the St. Catharines Standard, has identified the opportunities and challenges that have emerged as a result of the growth. Niagara College, where 4,100 out of a total of over 11,000 enrolled are international students, was among the Ontario public colleges profiled in the series.

This class-action lawsuit covers two groups: those international students who graduated from the general arts and science program between Sept. 1, 2013 and Aug. 31, 2016 and who were initially denied a three-year post-graduation work permit "due to distance learning" and subsequently reapplied for and obtained it, as well as those who experienced the same but didn't subsequently get the permit.

The legal notice says class members must provide proof such as confirmation of their date of graduation from Niagara College and the rejection letter of their work permit application setting out the reason of denial.

While class members who meet the requirements will automatically be included in the proceeding, those who object to the settlement terms must opt out of the legal action on or before a date approved by the court in order to keep their right to sue the college. The court is expected to hear the settlement agreement on Feb. 6.

According to the notice from Thomson Rogers, counsel for the students will be seeking the court approval of total fees of approximately $1 million from the compensation settlement. Niagara College has also agreed to pay the students' lawyers $250,000 toward their legal fees, disbursements and applicable taxes, the notice says.

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