International student enrolment drops below federal cap, Universities Canada says

Universities Canada says enrolment by students from outside Canada has fallen below the cap the federal government set on international student visas this year.

The cap was announced in January as a way to slow the rapid increase in the number of international students, citing pressure on housing, health care and other services.

The new policy limits the number of student visa applications the government would accept into processing, and could cut admissions in Ontario by half this year. Canada-wide the move is expected to result in a 35 per cent drop in the number of students in 2024 compared to last year.

Universities Canada president Gabriel Miller says the change will actually be bigger than the government predicted, and that will take a major financial toll on schools.

He says the cap created uncertainty for prospective students, and the Immigration Department’s pause in visa processing while the government implemented the cap may have led those students to look elsewhere.

Miller says the full impact won’t be clear until schools see how many students turn up in September.

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The cap was introduced after Canada’s international student program came under the microscope during an admissions scandal that saw Ottawa issue deportation orders of some 700 international students.

Most of those deportations were scrapped as many students received fake offers of acceptance without their knowledge from a now-shuttered consulting company in India.

Other changes to the international student program introduced in 2023 included a more than doubling the cost-of-living requirement for Canadian study permit applicants to $20,635, and lengthening the time graduating international students could work in Canada without an employment visa.

– With files from INsauga.com