> Canadians at Waterloo enjoy a heavily subsidized world-class education, at the tax-payer's expense, then leave to contribute nothing to the economy that produced them.

I'm not sure that's entirely true. Even foreign students who have no intention of remaining in Canada after university are still adding value.

Why? Because when they go abroad and do good work, they maintain and improve the image of UW. There's a reason it became a world class school, and you can think of former students doing work abroad as sort of like advertising.

Besides, foreign students pay more. Their tuition is not nearly as cheap as that of domestic students.

> Interestingly, some also come back later in life to enjoy subsidized health care to which they've also never contributed.

This is the case in many countries on earth which engage in socialism.

> I wonder if there's a way to structure post-secondary education subsidies as a sort of debt that you can pay off by either remaining employed in Canada, or in cash if you decide to leave.

That would suck, quite frankly. I'm a Canadian who moved abroad after university because I wanted to gain some perspective and see more of the world.

I'm not a resident of Canada currently, so you're saying I should be saddled with additional debt because I left Canada without contributing to the economy?

Why shouldn't education be a right? I had to pay for my education, as I assume you did. Yes, it was subsidized by tax payer money, but in the end I spent ~$35,000 CAD (total) on tuition for my B.Eng.

I had to work summers and internships to pay for my tuition, and housing expenses when I was in university.

Will I return to Canada? I don't know, maybe. I'm still having a blast working abroad, and I'm still in my 20s, so who knows what will happen.

What I can say though, is I'm really glad that Canada didn't charge me an additional tax for going abroad after my education. If I had any kind of significant debt, I wouldn't have been able to afford to move to Europe and look for work.

(I am not a UW grad)

This is silly protectionism. UWaterloo students abroad has arguably what's built its reputation. So goes for everywhere else you hear "Keep all my <local resources> in my <local area>"

Disclosure: UW Tron Eng 2010, still in Waterloo.

If you require students to spend X years working in Y, then it's not a subsidy anymore, it sounds a lot more like a scholarship. What you're suggesting would have to somehow be structured to let students choose not to accept the agreement, and at that point its not "for everyone" anymore.

This sort of agreement definitely does exist, though. My sister in law went to med school under one requiring her to work a number of years in rural parts of the state after residency.

This would all be conveniently solved if Canada didn't take so much of people's money to pay for so much other people's things.

> structure post-secondary education subsidies as a sort of debt

That's called a student loan.

The US government does exactly this in the form of "scholarships" where you're essentially indentured to the government for X years after graduating.

UW Sys Des '07 grad, still in Canada. 100% agree with you.