KAMLOOPS — Thompson Rivers University will be joining a list of schools in BC no longer accepting large cash payments from students.
This week, Advanced Education Minister Melanie Mark sent letters to nearly 370 schools, asking them to tighten up cash payment rules.
TRU Vice President of Administration and Finance, Matt Milovick says the move stems from the BC government trying to crack down on money laundering in the province.
“They’ve identified a number of areas that are potential schemes for money launderers. And one of the areas that was identified is colleges and institutions,” Milovick explains. “So we’re wrapped up into that, hence the basis of the letter. They want us to look at our policies and procedures.”
A recent report found some students will pay for enrolment with cash, then withdraw from the school shortly after in order to get a refund by cheque.
However, Milovick says that is not a common practice at TRU.
“We actually had a discussion about this recently, and our experience is the students that pay cash tend to stay,” he says. “We haven’t seen anything that’s troubling or problematic from that perspective.”
A limit to how much cash a student can pay with has not been set, and Milovick says he expects it’ll be in the several thousand dollar range.
Currently, Milovick says the university is reviewing its cash payment policies. and will relay that information to the Ministry by the end of June.
