Nearly 50,000 ‘no-show’ international students didn’t comply with their Canadian study permits last year, data show

Countries with highest no show rates (over 10 percent, ranked highest no show rates to lowest: Rwanda, DRC, Ghana, Jordan, Algeria, Cameroon, Iran, Turkey and Nigeria. Suggests that some of accusations of racism regarding African applicants were unfounded given higher no shows and thus entering Canada on false pretences:

Close to 50,000 international students who received study permits to come to Canada were reported as “no-shows” at the colleges and universities where they were supposed to be taking their courses, according to government figures for two months last spring.

Numbers obtained by The Globe and Mail show that the non-compliant students made up 6.9 per cent of the total number of international students recorded by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

Universities and colleges are required by the immigration department to report twice a year on whether international students are enrolled and going to class in compliance with their study permits.

The International Student Compliance Regime, implemented in 2014, was designed to help spot bogus students and assist provinces in identifying questionable schools….

In March and April of 2024, colleges and universities reported to IRCC on students from 144 countries. The top 10 countries of student origin with the greatest number of “no-shows” that spring had widely ranging non-compliance rates.

They included 2.2 per cent for Philippines (representing 688 no-show students); 6.4 per cent for China (4,279 no-shows); 11.6 per cent for Iran (1,848 no-shows); and 48.1 per cent for Rwanda (802 no-shows).

Henry Lotin, a former federal economist and expert on immigration, said one way to dampen abuse of the system would be to require international students to pay fees upfront before coming to Canada….

Source: Nearly 50,000 ‘no-show’ international students didn’t comply with their Canadian study permits last year, data show