Federal government issued billions to students at private schools, data reveal

2025/12/10 Leave a comment

Sigh….:

The Canadian government gave billions in grants to students at private, for-profit schools, a practice some critics argue has rewarded some institutions with less-than-rigorous academic standards.

Since 2017, the federal government has granted $2.7 billion to students at those schools, according to data from Employment and Social Development Can­ada (ESDC). 

The amount awarded to the students has risen dramatically in recent years, meaning a growing share of taxpayer money is indirectly flowing to for-profit institutions. 

Last month’s federal budget announced the government will no longer offer grants to students at such schools, citing unspecified “integrity issues.”…

Source: Federal government issued billions to students at private schools, data reveal

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HESA: New Statscan Data on Students and Academic Staff

2025/12/09 Leave a comment

Of interest. College sector and business programs were the main abusers:

The student data is the slightly more interesting of the two, because it (finally) shows the system essentially at the height of the international student boom in the late fall of 2023 (Statscan student data is based on an October/November snapshot and therefore does not quite capture the full craziness of what went on in Ontario colleges, where most all international students were on an 8-month schedule with starts happening every four months and so therefore did not necessarily show up on Statscan scans). 

Unsurprisingly, total enrolments in Canadian postsecondary went up. A lot. 140,000 or so, which in absolute terms is the biggest single-year increase in post-secondary enrolments in Canadian history. But as figure 1 shows, that increase was a) highly concentrated in the college sector and b) largely due to international students.

Figure 1: Increase in Post-Secondary Enrolments by Sector and Source, Canada, 2023-24

Figure 2 breaks down the college increase by field of study.  Again, not a huge surprise: the biggest source of increase was business programs (cheap to deliver, required level of English not all that high); if anything, though I am surprised that so many programs saw an increase in enrolments: this result is actually substantially less business-centric than I would have expected.

Figure 2: Increase in College Enrolments by Field of Study, 2023-24

Source: New Statscan Data on Students and Academic Staff

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Here’s how much the cuts to Canada’s international students have hurt Ontario colleges and universities

2025/11/28 Leave a comment

Starting to get a better sense of the numbers and how governments created this problem through a mixture of underfunding of post-secondary education and over-reliance on international students:

Ontario colleges and universities have been hit with more than $4.6 billion in lost revenues amid the drastic cuts to international students, new post-secondary figures obtained by the Star show.

And with Ottawa just announcing even fewer foreign students for 2026, for universities alone the impact is expected to increase from the $2.1 billion blow they are already dealing with.

The new numbers have the province’s universities now warning they “cannot cut their way out of these growing fiscal challenges.”

…Universities have already cut $550 million in the last few years, mainly through program loss, fewer services and staff cuts, and many schools are staring down deficits this school year. 

Colleges have cut $1.8 billion in the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years, by cutting up to 10,000 jobs, and 600 programs as well as shuttering a number of campuses. …

Source: Here’s how much the cuts to Canada’s international students have hurt Ontario colleges and universities

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Thousands of former international students’ visas will expire soon. What happens next is murky

2025/11/28 Leave a comment

Would be nice if we had reliable exit data to know:

Tens of thousands of international students who were granted postgraduate work permits will see their visas expire this year, casting doubt on their futures in Canada and leading economists to wonder if some will stay in the country as undocumented residents.

There were 31,610 people with valid postgraduate work permits in the country as of Sept. 30, and those visas will expire by Dec. 31, according to data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) provided to The Globe and Mail.

Those numbers have recently come under scrutiny by economists and immigration experts because it’s unclear how many temporary residents remain in the country after their visas expire, adding to the undocumented population….

In a statement to The Globe, the federal Immigration Department said it did not have an estimate of the number of people in Canada on expired postgraduate work permits. 

“Once someone receives a permit, they must abide by the condition of their permit, including the legal requirement to leave Canada at the end of the authorized period of stay,” the IRCC said in the e-mailed statement. 

Last year, the Canada Border Services Agency deported approximately 18,000 people, but the agency does not publicly break that number down by type of study or work permit. 

The latest IRCC data show that the number of expiring postgraduate work permits is down sharply from the same period last year, when approximately 70,000 were due to expire. …

Source: Thousands of former international students’ visas will expire soon. What happens next is murky

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UK minister flags visa ‘abuse’ as student asylum claims surge

2025/11/26 Leave a comment

Similar dynamics as Canada:

…UK’s Indo-Pacific Minister Seema Malhotra has defended her government’s immigration proposals during a visit to India, while expressing concern about a rise in foreign students seeking asylum at the end of their studies.

Under the new plans, some migrants could have to wait up to 20 years before they can settle permanently in the UK and the qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain will be extended from five to 10 years.

The proposals will apply to an estimated 2.6 million people who arrived in the country since 2021. They have drawn criticism from some quarters, including a few Labour MPs, even though the Conservatives gave the measures a cautious welcome.

The reforms are “in line with what countries around the world do” to stop the abuse of their immigration systems, Malhotra told the BBC in the southern Indian city of Chennai, adding that there was a “very strong message we also send, which is that we welcome those coming legally”.

According to Malhotra some16,000 international students from across the world had applied for asylum in the UK last year after completing their courses, which she said was evidence of abuse of legal migration routes.

A further 14,800 students sought asylum this year to June 2025, latest Home Office figures show. It is unclear how many of them are Indian nationals.

“We’ve seen visa abuse in the case of legal routes, where people have gone legally and then sought to overstay when their visas weren’t extended,” Malhotra said.

“If you see that level of abuse, it undermines your immigration system. It undermines public confidence, and the fairness and control people expect.”…

Source: UK minister flags visa ‘abuse’ as student asylum claims surge

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Canada’s cap on international students helped lower rents. But will it bring colleges and universities down as well?

2025/11/17 Leave a comment

Some good quotes:

..André Côté, interim executive director of the DAIS think tank at Toronto Metropolitan University, told a Parliamentary committee this fall that it’s clear the international student program had grown “a little out of control.”

There had been a huge increase in the number of foreign students, mainly in college programs, who were unlikely to go on to well-paying jobs, Mr. Côté said. And there was never going to be enough spots for all those who wanted to stay in Canada long-term, he added.

“As much as it stinks to close campuses and to lay off staff, I look at all this and say we had a system that grew far too big for its britches,” he said to the committee. “It was a bit of a reckoning that had to happen.” …

Amir Khajepour, a professor of engineering at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, says he typically has 40 to 50 graduate students and postdocs working in his lab. His research has attracted grants and industry partnerships focused on autonomous vehicles, underground mining, robotics and health care. But he’s struggling to fill available positions.

“We are not looking for just anyone. We are looking for the best students from the best universities with the best credentials,” he said.

In the last year he has accepted about 20 to 30 international applicants, but only four have been able to obtain study permits, as processing times have increased, he said, adding his lab is down to about 30 students.

Prof. Khajepour said he doesn’t understand why the government was previously unable to distinguish between top students coming to attend prestigious universities and people whose primary purpose is immigration.

“You are damaging research. In Canada, you are in a good position to attract the best. You are not even using this opportunity,” he said.

Source: Canada’s cap on international students helped lower rents. But will it bring colleges and universities down as well?

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Indian students rejected the most for international student permits in Canada

2025/11/06 Leave a comment

Given most of the growth has been from India, the extent of college recruitment in particular and the examples of fraud, not that surprising:

…For the second year in a row, Canada cut the number of international student permits in order to bring down the number of temporary migrants and to deal with fraudulent applications.

As a result, about 74% of Indian students applying to study at Canadian colleges and universities were rejected in August — a big increase compared to about 32% in August 2023, says Reuters, which was provided with immigration department data.

Indian applicants also dropped from 20,900 in August 2023, when they represented just over one-quarter of all applicants, to 4,515 in August.

During the past 10 years, India has been Canada’s top source of international students and in August,  it also had the highest study-permit refusal rate of any country with more than 1,000 approved applicants….

Source: Indian students rejected the most for international student permits in Canada

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Canada’s education sector has a new idea to lure international students back. Here’s what it is

2025/11/03 Leave a comment

Doesn’t appear to be a new idea:

…Niagara College president Sean Kennedy said Canada has remained a safe and welcoming country known for its progressive values, cultural diversity and quality education. 

“The messaging to the world through this campaign will be, ‘Come and grow your future as a global citizen,’” said Kennedy, whose school saw international applications drop by half and lost 40 per cent of international enrolment in the past year.

For graduates, that could mean returning home after an amazing education and international experience or staying and working for those who fall in love with Canada, he said.

“Both paths are really laudable, commendable and worth considering,” Kennedy noted. “It’s a bit more of a balanced approach. What we’re offering here is a chance to grow your skills and knowledge and expertise, but also to grow as a person.”

Source: Canada’s education sector has a new idea to lure international students back. Here’s what it is

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ICYMI – Brunner: Canadian international student policy at a crossroads

2025/10/15 Leave a comment

Good list of some of the issues and some easier to address than others:

This policy brief identifies four core challenges:

  • Lack of clear, cross-sectoral policy co-ordination: A disjointed, diffused and volatile policy arena is marked by competing objectives among its many actors and lacks a holistic approach to long-term planning and shared accountability.
  • Funding dependency: Overreliance on international student tuition fees as a revenue source has left post-secondary institutions vulnerable and without clear alternatives.
  • Damaged public consensus: High international student recruitment levels, unsupported by adequate settlement services and infrastructure, have eroded public support not only for international students but also for immigration more broadly.
  • Transparency and fairness: Complex and inconsistent immigration pathways create prolonged uncertainty and vulnerability for international students, resulting in a system marked by precarity and potential exploitation.

To address these systemic issues, this brief recommends:

  • An international education strategy that is collaborative, multi-level and cross-sectoral;
  • Predictable and clearly communicated pathways to permanent residency so international students can make informed choices before choosing to study in Canada;
  • Increased and sustained public investment in higher education to reduce institutions’ dependency on international student tuition;
  • Co-ordinated, universally accessible settlement services with clear accountability across government and institutional actors;
  • Strengthened transparency and regulation of institutional and recruitment practices, supported by accessible public data on student outcomes.

By rebalancing the policy landscape toward sustainability, transparency and ethical responsibility, Canada can better manage international students’ economic benefits, protect institutional integrity and uphold its commitments to the international students it recruits.

Source: Brunner: Canadian international student policy at a crossroads

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Chinese students take Ottawa to court over study permit delays

2025/09/04 Leave a comment

Security clearances take time, particularly for citizens of countries with a history of foreign interference and opaque organizations, making some being caught up in the vetting process:

Dozens of Chinese graduate students are accusing Ottawa of discrimination because their study permit applications have been left in limbo for months, preventing them from beginning their advanced degrees at Canadian universities.

“It’s already [done] very serious damage to my life,” Yixin Cheng, a 27-year-old would-be PhD student in computer science at UBC, told CBC News from Hangzhao, China.

Cheng is one of a group of 25 students who have filed a case in Federal Court against Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), alleging their files have been unfairly stalled in the security screening phase. All of them have been accepted into graduate-level programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) at universities including UBC, McGill and the University of Waterloo.

All 25 were still in China as the new school year began this week.

“Basically, the IRCC pressed the pause button for my life for over one year,” said Cheng.

Cheng applied for a study permit back in May 2024, and quit a high-paying job because he expected to be at UBC last fall.  The IRCC website says the standard processing time for students from China is four weeks. …

Their lawyer, Toronto-based Vakkas Bilsin, says their similarities  — all Chinese citizens, all seeking graduate programs in STEM — made him think “there is something serious going on.”

He says the lack of transparency is particularly frustrating, saying that four or five weeks after some students had submitted their applications, IRCC’s application tracker said the agency had only just started the background check process.

“We still don’t understand why a detailed, extensive security check is necessary in this specific circumstance of these students,” he said.

IRCC said in an emailed statement it is “committed to a fair and non-discriminatory application of immigration procedures. All applicants seeking to come to Canada — regardless of their country of origin or the program under which they apply — are subject to the same screening processes.”

It says the website only offers a general idea of how long the process may take and that, under the law, all people looking to enter the country must meet admissibility requirements, including a security screening.

Source: Chinese students take Ottawa to court over study permit delays

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