The Ontario college with the most international students comes out swinging against Canada’s reforms

Not unexpected. But one third in business programs suggest and three percent in health and life sciences suggest that it may be over stating its case:

The Ontario college that boasts the largest number of international students in the country is unapologetically touting its growth plan in an effort to address what it calls Canada’s “baby deficit.”

Kitchener-based Conestoga College, which has seen new approved study permits up 137 per cent over the last three years, said the prosperity of the local communities is threatened by the pressure on the labour supply — a result of a declining birthrate and an aging workforce — as well as the recent changes to Canada’s international education program.

“The college is responding to these shortages both emphatically and strategically,” Conestoga said in a report released Tuesday that explains its recent growth and the need to meet the region’s demand for a skilled labour force.

“The college has expanded its enrolment and attracted the level of international students necessary to compensate for the ‘baby deficit’ that will be the hallmark of the next several decades.”

The report, titled “The Conestoga Effect,” came in the wake of a two-year cap imposed by Immigration Minister Marc Miller recently to restrict the number of new study permits issued in order to rein in Canada’s fast-growing international student program, which he said has been used as a back entry into the country for jobs and permanent residence. 

According to data from the Immigration Department, Conestoga, a public college with 11 campuses in eight cities, has seen the fastest growth in new study permits received — 12,822 in 2021; 20,905 in 2022; and 30,395 in 2023 — and one of the highest volumes of study permits extended over the three-year period — 2,837, 4,629 and 6,760 respectively.

Those numbers have raised eyebrows and drawn criticisms of the college for running the operations like what Miller has described as “puppy mills,” which Conestoga president John Tibbits vehemently denied on Tuesday.

“I am happy with what we’ve done. And we would do the same thing again,” he told an audience at the unveiling of the report, which was the fourth in a series over two decades that started in 2003, to capture the impact of the institution on the local community and economy.

Source: The Ontario college with the most international students comes out swinging against Canada’s reforms