KITCHENER -- The University of Guelph has announced three new initiatives worth as much as $4 million to help international students with their education.

The announcement was made following calls for the university to cancel a planned tuition increase at a time when most schooling was expected to be done online.

Student Jaskiran Sethi, who moved from India to Canada three years ago to attend the school, told CTV News in mid-July that she paid around $22,000 a year for schooling.

Over the spring, she said her tuition rose by 10 per cent.

While the new measures don't roll back the planed tuition increase, a number of new programs will help students mitigate those costs.

"We recognize the challenges that many of our international students are facing during this crisis and so we are taking these further actions to help them continue their studies," said Stuart McCook, assistant vice-president international, in a news release.

The programs are as follows:

  • Provost Incentive Offer: a one-time credit of $750 for full-time international students registered for the fall. No application is required.
  • International Tuition Assistance Bursary: a needs-based bursary program that provides up to $1,250 per semester to international students who are having a hard time paying their tuitions.
  • International Undergraduate Entrance Scholarship enhancements: a program for students who have been awarded entrance scholarships will get $4,000 for their second, third and fourth years of schooling as long as they meet the renewal criteria

The school says it has also enhanced its emergency bursaries and made a new one for graduate students that gives them $2,500 automatically.

A deferred tuition payment plan will also be offered to students.