Amid further clarifications on the cap being made back in March, Marc Miller noted in a fresh statement on April 5 that the cap will represent a 28% reduction from 2023 for the groups included in it.
“Many variables may influence the number of new international students who arrive in Canada in 2024, for example, provinces and territories with room to grow may not end up using their full allocations; approval rates may change; and in-year adjustments may be required,” Miller detailed.
“These results will help me make decisions on allocations for 2025,” he added, which will occur as part of the overarching temporary plan to lower the number of international students in Canada.
The statement was released with the intention to share the figures and explain how decisions were made.
The data provided along with the minister’s statement also seemed to clarify multiple provinces and territories’ allocations that had yet not been published by the provinces themselves.
Allocations have been “topped up” for provinces with approval rates of less than 60%, he detailed, with the aim that they will then reach their expected numbers of approved study permits.
With the “top-ups”, Alberta’s allocation is 40,894; Manitoba’s is 18,652; New Brunswick’s is confirmed to be 14,651; Newfoundland and Labrador, which was “discussing with DLIs regarding the allocation” in the first week of April, has been given 3,153.
The Northwest Territories have been issued 333; Nunavut has also been issued the same; Quebec has been issued 117,917 – almost 50,000 more than without the top up. The Yukon has been issued 417.
The cap, Miller said, is based on the amount of expiring study permits this year, with the aim of getting the number of students coming in to equal the number whose permits run out.
“The target is 485,000 approved study permits,” he said.
“About 20% of students apply for an extension each year and remain in the country. Therefore, IRCC subtracted that amount (97,000) from the target of 485,000 and set side a small buffer to allow for other variations, resulting in a revised target of 364,000 approved study permits in 2024.
“For provinces that would receive fewer international students in 2024 than in 2023, we adjusted their allocation to lessen the negative impact”
He also detailed that based on a 60% national approval rate for study permit applications, the 364,000 target translates to a “cap of 606,000 study permit applications received for 2024”.
Reiterating the groups that are exempt from the cap – including primary and secondary school students and master’s or doctoral degree students – IRCC “deducted the estimated volume of these groups from the 2024 target number”.
“This resulted in a target of 236,000 approved study permits for 2024, which converts to roughly 393,000 study permit applications to be allocated,” he said.
Ontario’s 235,000 PAL allocation has largely gone to public colleges and universities – a staggering 96% – leaving private language schools in particular with only 2%, while the chair of Career Colleges Ontario said it was “disappointed” by the lack of permit allocations for its institutions, which are private.
Meanwhile, Prince Edward Island’s allocation will go only to public institutions – British Columbia’s allocation is the only one known that sees a sizeable portion going to private institutions, which will receive 47% of the province’s PAL allocation.
Regina-Wascana MP Michael Kram called the cap “Toronto-centric”.
Miller noted that growth for provinces receiving more students than in 2023 “based on population share” would be limited to 10%.
“For provinces that would receive fewer international students in 2024 than in 2023, we adjusted their allocation to lessen the negative impact in the first year and support broader regional immigration goals,” he noted.
“A total of about 552,000 study permit applications have been allocated to provinces and territories under the national cap.
“These allocations are expected to yield approximately 292,000 approved study permits, representing a 28% reduction from 2023 for the groups included under the cap,” he concluded.
