On January 22, minister of immigration, refugees, and citizenship Marc Miller announced that the government of Canada is implementing a cap on international student permit applications for two years. According to the federal government, the new measures were put in place to ensure that international students have the proper support when entering Canada and to stop institutions from increasing international student intake to drive revenues.
Additionally, the government said that rising numbers of international students can impact services such as housing and healthcare; they placed a large focus on less reputable private “diploma mill” institutions, but public institutions like Camosun College will still be impacted.
Because of the cap, 2024 will now see a 35 percent decrease in international students from 2023, resulting in approximately 360,000 approved study permits. BC—the province with the second highest number of international students, behind Ontario—has been allotted 83,000 study permits. Based on current acceptance rates, this could mean roughly 50,000 international students studying in BC.
Each post-secondary institution will have its own cap; these are still being decided.
Current international students will not be impacted, and the cap will be reassessed after 2025.
The government also recently changed the amount of money international students need to prove they have to study in Canada, raising it from $10,000 to $20,635, on top of travel and tuition.
Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) executive director Michel Turcotte says that it’s imperative that international students receive a recognized credential and a good experience upon coming to Canada, something that private institutions essentially running “diploma mills” can’t offer.
“Across Canada, there’s been an absolute growth in private institutions that essentially target international students just purely for the money,” says Turcotte. “Public institutions certainly use international students in that way, too; I don’t think Camosun could keep the lights on without them. But at least there’s a quality credential at the end of that. If you go to Camosun or UVic and you’re an international student, you’re going to pay three or four times the tuition of a domestic student, but you’ll still get a credential that is recognized by employers and has some perceived value. That’s not always the case for those attending private institutions.”
Both the CCSS and the BC Federation of Students (BCFS) have been lobbying for the government to give more funding to post-secondary institutions to prevent the over-reliance on international student fees.
“We acknowledge that a lot of institutions do heavily rely on international [student] fees,” says BCFS chairperson Melissa Chirino. “One of our advocacy asks that we’ve had for years is there needs to be more funding in the post-secondary sector because we’ve become more reliant on these international fees, and, really, our argument prior was that if anything were to happen, we would really feel the impact of that. I think after that announcement, we were worried about the implication that it has for our institutions, and how are they going to have all the services on campus? How is that going to affect their budget? Are they going to increase the international student fees [for students] who are currently here? There is a lot of concern there.”
Additionally, the CCSS is concerned about how international students may now view Canada due to these new restrictions. Turcotte says that international students might now be looking to countries like Australia or the USA to study because of how unsettled Canada appears. He says international students might also be fearful of additional regulations being announced.
“The problem is few people were given advance notice that the federal government was going to react in this way. We have been pressuring the federal government, when we go to lobby weeks in Ottawa and other things, to take some ownership of some of these issues. But we were hoping for a more consultative approach as to how to do it,” says Turcotte. “The government has taken a very decisive step; we’re very happy they’ve got involved in helping to regulate this field… but the way that this has come down has certainly increased instability in relation to how international students abroad are viewing Canada right now.”
The BCFS acknowledges that this is a good first step in protecting international students, but say that more work needs to be done. Chirino says that along with more government funding, BCFS is also asking for a two-percent cap on tuition raises for international students.
“The BCFS does commend the provincial government for taking the first step to stop exploitation faced by international students,” says Chirino. “The one new measure that is put in place that really does speak to our members from the public post-secondary is the new requirement to provide fee transparency. I think that really acknowledges that more overhead is needed for international students in BC. Essentially, that’s one of the things we’ve been advocating for years.”