(Bloomberg) — Ontario, Canada’s most popular province for international students, will see a smaller decline in the number of new study permits than previous estimates.
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The province will have a 41% reduction in study permits from 2023 levels, according to new government estimates released Friday. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government earlier forecast Ontario to see a roughly 50% drop due to the student cap announced in January.
The cap was distributed by population, but the government made adjustments. For provinces that would receive fewer foreign students this year, it tweaked their allocation to “lessen the negative impact in the first year and support broader regional immigration goals,” it said in the release.
For provinces that would receive more international students this year, it amended the allocation to limit growth to 10%.
The number of new postsecondary study permits in Canada this year is expected to decrease by 28% from 2023 for the programs facing new limits, which excludes master’s and doctoral degrees. That translates to about 290,000 new students arriving in Canada in 2024 under the cap.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller said the national cap should keep the overall number of international students in the country steady this year, with numbers of new permits matching expired ones.
The president of the British Columbia Institute of Technology, a public polytechnic institute, said the province now has an opportunity to direct international students into institutions that are offering programs that are more needed in the workforce.
“We’re hopeful that that’s an opportunity to bring more international students into the province, but moving them more towards fields that are highly needed like health care and the trades,” Jeff Zabudsky said Friday at an event hosted by the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade.
Prior to the cap, he said, “students abroad have simply applied to whatever institution they wanted to in Canada, get accepted, and then apply for a visa, and then arrive.” He added that BCIT’s student population is 90% domestic and 10% international.
–With assistance from Thomas Seal.
(Adds quote from BCIT)
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