Canada caps foreign student permits by 35%

Toronto: Canada has announced it will implement an intake cap on the number of applications accepted for study permits for international students which is expected to result in 35% reduction in those numbers this year as compared to 2023.
This was announced by Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Marc Miller on Monday , who said the “temporary” cap will be placed for two years and the cap for 2025 re-assessed at the end of this year.
“For 2024, the cap is expected to result in approximately 360,000 approved study permits, a decrease of 35% from 2023,” Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced on Monday.
“It’s unacceptable that some private institutions have taken advantage of international students by operating under-resourced campuses, lacking supports for students and charging high tuition fees all the while significantly increasing their intake of international students,” he said at a press conference in Montreal.
IRCC said, “Some institutions have significantly increased their intakes to drive revenues, and more students have been arriving in Canada without the proper support they need to succeed. Rapid increases in the number of international students arriving in Canada also put pressure on housing, health care and other services.”
There was increasing political pressure on the government to control temporary immigration due to a housing affordability crisis and the announcement came as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau began a Cabinet retreat in the Quebec city.
Students from India comprise the larger national cohort among those with these study permits. Till November 2023, they accounted for 215,190 out of the 579,075 permits issued or 37%, while in 2022, they made for 225,835 out of 548,785, or 41%. The numbers have escalated sharply over the past five years when the number of Indians getting study permits was at less than half the current figure, at 107,070 in 2018.
It also came just after Canada recorded over a million, 1,028,850, study permit holders in the country for the first time ever in 2023.
It also announced that post-graduate work permits will not be issued to international students attending private colleges operating under a curriculum licensing programme. Under such programmes students physically attend a private college that has been licensed to deliver the curriculum of an associated public college and they have been considered a source of abuse of the system. “These programmes have seen significant growth in attracting international students in recent years, though they have less oversight than public colleges and they act as a loophole with regards to post-graduation work permit eligibility,” IRCC said.
“Today, we are announcing additional measures to protect a system that has become so lucrative that it has opened a path for its abuse. Enough is enough. Through the decisive measures announced today, we are striking the right balance for Canada and ensuring the integrity of our immigration system while setting students up for the success they hope for,” Miller said.