Canada to stick with ‘flawed’ international student caps

Canada is unlikely to reconsider lifting its cap on international student numbers despite a critical report that found the policy was badly designed and led to unintended consequences.

The Auditor General of Canada has identified significant issues with the limits the country introduced on study permit applications in January 2024, criticising the design, monitoring and oversight of the restrictions with “critical weaknesses” in its integrity control.

The drastic impact of the policy – with new international study visas issued by Canada dropping by nearly 90 per cent from 456,690 in 2023 to 50,370 by September 2025 – was also not foreseen by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the report found.

Some provinces were expected to see increases of 10 per cent but actually suffered decreases of 59 per cent or more in approved new study permits in 2024 compared with the year before.

But Alex Usher, president of Higher Education Strategy Associates, said the chances of a rethink of the policy within the next two years were very low because the government credits it for making the housing crisis go away as a political issue.

“It’s less that the actual policy was poorly thought out than that the government chose to accompany the policy with messaging that attacked the sector as being low quality. 

“That destroyed the brand and led to a huge fall-off in applications, which as the report shows did far more damage than the policy itself.”

Usher said the episode shows the “ruthless” nature of the Liberal party’s desire to hold on to a majority government.

“If a few institutions have to die, and one already has, so that the Liberals stay in power, that’s just fine with them,” said Usher, referring to the closure of The Manitoba Institute of Trades and Technology (MITT) announced in February.

The report also found that when irregularities in the system were identified, these were rarely followed up by the department.

Around 800 people were identified as having misrepresented information or used fraudulent documents in their applications.

Christopher Worswick, professor of economics at Carleton University, said this showed the system had not been well designed to accommodate the huge surge seen before the caps were brought in, adding that international student policy had been “not well thought out and very poorly executed”.

He was hopeful that the report, and the “needless” damage done to the university sector, could trigger some changes in government policy.

Roopa Trilokekar, associate professor of education at York University, said the caps policy was “largely reactionary” as the federal government was responding to mounting public pressure and growing anti-immigration sentiment.

“In this context, the government’s response was poorly coordinated, inadequately planned, and insufficiently communicated,” she said.

“The lack of attention to regional impacts and the potential damage to Canada’s global reputation represents a significant oversight – one that might have been avoided through more thorough consultation and a more measured, phased approach.”

She warned that both provincial governments and post-secondary institutions are now facing considerable uncertainty.

“Institutions are now dealing with staff lay-offs, programme closures, declining enrolments, and growing financial strain. Universities’ ability to advance their internationalisation strategies has been significantly weakened.”

Audrey Macklin, professor of law at the University of Toronto, said the report revealed some of the larger defects in a system that treats international students as “fodder”.

She said it is an example of “politics over policy” as the government “ripped the rug out from under” international students.

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com