Two-Year Cap on International Students in Canada, 35% Decrease in Study Permits for 2024

Canada announced on Monday that it is planning to impose a cap on study permits for international students for a period of two years.

The announcement was made by Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Marc Miller, who also said that the cap for 2025 will be reviewed at the end of 2024, Erudera.com reports.

According to a statement by the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the number of approved study permits will decrease by 35 percent for the year 2024 compared to 2023.

“For 2024, the cap is expected to result in approximately 360,000 approved study permits, a decrease of 35 percent from 2023,” IRCC said.

Miller stressed the federal government will cooperate with the provinces and territories that have witnessed an unsustainable growth in the number of international students.

He said that the cap serves not only to solve the housing crisis in Canada, which has been attributed to an increase in migrants and international students, but also to protect students attending colleges that often fail to provide adequate services and are costly.

“To implement the cap, as of January 22, 2024, every study permit application submitted to IRCC will also require an attestation letter from a province or territory. Provinces and territories are expected to establish a process for issuing attestation letters to students by no later than March 31, 2024,” IRCC further explained in its statement.

The news has been welcomed by the University of Toronto but was criticized by student groups, arguing that the focus should have been on providing more housing options for international students.

The University of Toronto, home to 28,433 graduate and undergraduate students from 170 countries and regions, said it will cooperate with the government on this issue.

Indian and Chinese students will be most affected by the cap as the latter account for most international students in Canada.

Data indicate that there were 319,130 Indian students studying in Canada in 2022. Of these, 209,930 were undergraduates, 80,270 university graduates, and the remaining 28,930 students were pursuing certificates or diplomas.

In other words, students from India represent 40 percent of all international students, while China follows with about 12 percent.

Over 800,000 international students with active visas studied in Canada in 2022, an increase from 275,000 in 2012.

In 2023, the number of international students in Canada exceeded one million for the first time. The figure even surpassed the previous projections of 949,000 international students in the country by the end of the same year, The Globe and Mail reports.

According to Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the number of international students with study permits in Canada by the end of 2023 totaled 1,028,850.

Photograph: Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau & Mayor of Toronto Olivia Chow

Source: Official Twitter account of PM Justin Trudeau, posted on July 18, 2023