The news coming in has it that, Canada intends to create a cap on the quantity of new study permits granted to international students.
The cap is referred to as a temporary measure and will be in place for 2024 and 2025. According to Canadian immigration officials, the cap will cause the number of new study permits given in 2024 to drop by 35% from levels in 2023.
Along with the cap, the government also said today that students participating in programs offered through public-private partnerships will no longer be qualified for post-graduate work permits as of September 1, 2024.
The government is also planning to restrict the number of open work licenses that spouses of international students can obtain.
Today, Canada’s Immigration Minister Marc Miller declared that the country will temporarily limit the amount of new study permits granted to foreign students. This initiative is the most recent in a line of steps the government has made to strengthen integrity checks in Canada’s student visa program in recent months.
Speaking in Montreal today, Minister Marc Miller said, “These measures are to ensure that as future students arrive in Canada, they receive the quality of education that they signed up for and the hope that they were provided in their home countries. It would be a disservice to welcome international students to Canada knowing that now all of them are getting the resources they need to succeed in Canada. Allowing bad actors to continue their operations would be a disservice to all of the good institutions who pride themselves on providing a top-tier academic experience.”
“It is 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.”
The minister continued by outlining the three main policies the administration is introducing today, the most significant of which is a temporary two-year limit on new international study permits.
“This is the latest in a series of measures to improve programme integrity, and to set international students up for success in order to maintain a sustainable level of temporary residence in Canada as well. For 2024, the cap is expected to result in approximately 364,000 approved study permits, a decrease of 35% from 2023.”
“In the spirit of fairness, we are also allocating the cap space by province based on population…some provinces will see much more significant reductions. Some provinces will actually have room to grow if they so choose but the provinces that have been most heavily effected will have to decrease by about 50% or perhaps even a bit more than 50%, when it comes to new incoming students”
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