Federal government announces 2-year cap on student permits

With a stated goal of targeting institutional "bad actors" — and amid concern about the impact growing numbers of international students are having on the housing market — Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced Monday that the federal government will cap the number of student permits over the next two years.

The government says it will approve approximately 360,000 undergraduate study permits for 2024 — a 35 per cent reduction from 2023.

Each province and territory will be allotted a portion of the total, distributed according to population. The federal government says this will result in "much more significant decreases in provinces where the international student population has seen the most unsustainable growth."

In some provinces, Miller said, the total reduction in permits will be approximately 50 per cent.

Provinces and territories will be left to decide how permits are distributed among universities and colleges in their jurisdictions. The cap will be in place for two years; the number of visas to be issued in 2025 will be reassessed at the end of this year.

Miller said that by imposing the cap, the federal government is taking action against some small private colleges.

"It's 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," Miller said.

In addition to the cap, the federal government will also require international students applying for a permit to provide an attestation letter from a province or territory. 

"To be absolutely clear, these measures are not against individual international students," Miller said. "They 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."

Miller also announced changes to the post-graduation work permit program.

Starting in September, international students who begin a program that's part of a curriculum licensing arrangement (one where a private college has been licensed to deliver the curriculum of an associated public college) will no longer be eligible for a post-graduation work permit.

Graduates of master's and other "short graduate-level programs" will "soon" be able to apply for a three-year work permit, the government says. Open work permits will also be made available to the spouses of international students in master's and doctoral programs.

The changes announced Monday come a little over a month after Miller first announced measures intended to target what the minister described as "the diploma equivalent of puppy mills."

"We've got two years to actually get the ship in order," Miller said Monday. "It's a bit of a mess and it's time to rein it in."