The number of spaces available for international undergraduate students has dropped by 43 per cent with graduate students now included under the cap.
B.C. post-secondary institutions say Ottawa’s caps on study permits for international students is making it harder to keep their campuses running smoothly and having a chilling effect on international applications.
Recommended Videos
Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada announced Friday it would go through with its promise to reduce the number of study permits by a further 10 per cent in 2025. Last year, the agency reduced the number of study permits by 35 per cent.
In 2024, B.C. received an allocation of 83,000 undergraduate permit applications, down from the 97,000 actual applications the province received from international students the year before the cap was introduced. Graduate students were exempted from the first year of the program.
This year, the province has been reduced to a total allocation of 76,087 permit applications, with 28,333 of those reserved for graduate students, who are now included under the cap. That leaves an allocation of 47,754 for undergraduate students and all other types of international applicants.
While that represents an overall decrease of just under 10 per cent, it cuts the number of spaces available for international undergraduate students by 43 per cent.
Capilano University president Paul Dangerfield said he has no issue with the percentage of the federal allocation his institution has been handed by the province, with the NDP continuing its focus on helping public institutions remain as close to their previous totals as possible.
He said the major problem with the cap is that it has caused a rapid decline in the number of applications from international students because of the growing view that Canada is closed for business when it comes to post-secondary education.
“We’ve had the right level. Like our cap numbers are good, we’re happy with the numbers that we’ve got. But the impact of all of this has been that we’ve seen about half the number of applicants,” said Dangerfield.
“We’re actually seeing people who pay a pretty hefty deposit walking away from the deposit simply because they have got a sense that Canada is no longer a welcoming place.”
The result is that Capilano University is expecting an overall drop in enrolment of between five and 10 per cent next year.
Dangerfield, who chairs the B.C. Association of Institutes & Universities, said some B.C. schools expect a 30 to 40 per cent drop in enrolment, an untenable situation.
Institutions are often reliant financially on international student tuition to cover much of their expenses, including the cost of course offerings for both domestic and international students, and paying administrative salaries.
Emily Tang, a member of the Alliance of B.C. Student’s board of directors, said some universities have already cut course offerings and laid off administrative staff, meaning some domestic students are having difficulties finding the courses they need to graduate.
She said many international students now feel like “the rug has been pulled out from under their feet” over changes to the B.C. provincial nominee program that now requires master’s students to have a year of work experience before applying for permanent Canadian residency.
“They’ve all chosen, for example, UBC over other prestigious schools in the U.S. or in other provinces, in hopes of being able to immigrate to Canada and to be able to live in B.C.,” said Tang.
“All these changes came without warning and they basically plan their whole livelihoods around staying in B.C. after graduation. All these policy changes have a detrimental effect on their mental health and in uncertainty with their careers after.”
She said the province should immediately increase funding for post-secondary schools and restore the public funding model.
Since the early 2000s, the percentage of post-secondary budgets covered by the government has fallen from over 70 per cent to 41 per cent, according to the B.C. Federation of Students.
In a statement, Anne Kang, the post-secondary education and future skills minister, said public institutions will be supported to keep their international student enrolment relatively consistent while private colleges will bear the brunt of the caps in B.C.
Philip Steenkamp, president of Royal Roads University, said diplomatic tensions with China and India are also playing a role, with many students from those countries choosing to study in Australia, France or the U.S. instead.
“The geopolitical tensions between Canada and China had a huge impact on the market in China, the recent conflict with India has had a huge impact on the Indian market, and then these visa restrictions coming in,” he said.
“These things have compounded over the last few years, but a lot of institutions I know are just waiting to see what happens.”
Steenkamp, who is also chair of the Research Universities’ Council of B.C., says he understands the concerns of governments about private colleges luring students to Canada with false promises of a superior education and citizenship only to leave them stranded.
But, he thinks the “blunt instruments” the federal government has been using in an attempt to fix the issue are causing unintended consequences.
Dale McCartney, an expert on international student policy and a professor at the University of the Fraser Valley professor, said colleges, both public and private, have been hit especially hard by the crackdown on international students and the damage that has caused Canada’s reputation.
Many colleges promised international students they could get a postgraduate work permit and a path to permanent residency if they attended their institution, but new immigration laws have made international students ineligible for this permit if they attended a private college.
“It has really impacted the college sector in a profound way,” said McCartney.
“In B.C. the college sector serves generally less-privileged students. When we talk about that ranking of institutions, we’re often talking about the relative privilege of the students who go to it as well. So in that sense, this has really impacted the institutions that tend to serve the least-privileged domestic students as well.”