International student enrolments at Canadian colleges increased by nearly 30% in 2022/23 while universities saw a 7% rise, new data from Statistics Canada has revealed.
In contrast, the number of Canadian students enrolled in colleges and universities declined by 4% and 2% respectively, with international students driving an overall enrolment increase of 0.6%, totalling 2.2 million students across the sector.
Overall, college enrolments rose by 2.7% in 2022/23, while university enrolments fell by 0.5%, the first decline in a decade.
The data revealed that international students accounted for 21% of all college and university enrolments in 2022/23, continuing a decade-long trend of rising numbers of overseas students.
The number of international students more than doubled from 2013 to 2023, with Canadian college and university enrolments falling by 5.7% during the same period.
In January 2024, immigration minister Marc Miller shocked the sector by announcing a study permit cap to end the “unsustainable” levels of international student recruitment and reduce 2023 international student numbers by 35%.
While many stakeholders recognised the need for government intervention, the caps have widely been viewed as an imprecise “overcorrection”.
Over the past decade of increased international enrolments, institutions have been relying on international student fees to fill gaps caused by “chronic underfunding”.
According to Statistics Canada, the average undergraduate tuition fees for international students sat at CAD$33,561 in 2022/23, compared to $6,435 for domestic students.
International students accounted for 21% of all college and university enrolments in 2022/23
Statistics Canada
The most recent figures from Statistics Canada do not reflect the impact of the caps, but early immigration data for 2024 Q2 has shown a significant decline in study permit applications, indicating the reforms are meeting government objectives.
Rather than waiting to see the full impact of the initial caps, IRCC has come under criticism for enacting further restrictions over the past ten months, including a further tightening of the caps, altering PGWP eligibility and ending fast-track processing.
Together, these measures are expected to dramatically bring down the international student levels seen in the 2022/23 data.
According to the 2022/23 data, the increase in international student college enrolments was driven by an increase in students from India, rising by 32% on the previous year.
It revealed that Indian students accounted for over half of all international student college enrolments in Canadian colleges in 2022/23.
Despite troubling diplomatic relations between the two countries, Indian students remained the largest cohort of international students in Canada in H1 2024.
However, the increased restrictions are causing Indian students to consider alternative destinations in Europe, say stakeholders, alongside an effort on the part of Canadian institutions to diversify their international enrolments to make them less dependent on one source country.
