Canada's most popular destination for international students will see the largest drop in study permits issued

Ontario, Canada, known as a top destination for international students, is anticipated to experience a lesser decline in new study permits than previously projected.

Ontario is poised to experience the steepest drop in study permits issued in Canada. Official data unveiled on Friday shows permits plummeting to 141,000 this year from 239,753 in 2023 - a 41% reduction. This figure, however, is an improvement from earlier forecasts by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government, which initially anticipated a roughly 50% decrease due to the implementation of a student cap announced in January.

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Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, said, “On January 22, I announced a national cap on study permit applications to address the rapid increase of international students in Canada. Provincial and territorial allocations for 2024 have now been finalized. I would like to take this opportunity to share those figures and explain how we made these decisions."

The student cap, initially allocated based on population, underwent adjustments. Provinces expected to receive fewer foreign students this year had their allocations tweaked to "mitigate the adverse impact in the initial year and bolster broader regional immigration objectives," as stated in the release. Conversely, provinces slated to welcome more international students had their allocations modified to restrict growth to 10%.

The projected decline in new postsecondary study permits across Canada for programs subject to new limits (excluding master’s and doctoral degrees) is estimated at 28% from 2023 levels. This translates to approximately 290,000 new students arriving in Canada in 2024 under the cap. Immigration Minister Marc Miller noted that the national cap aims to maintain the overall number of international students in the country steady this year, with the issuance of new permits aligning with expired ones.

Earlier this year, the federal government announced its plan to assign a fixed number of international study permits to each province. Under this framework, provinces will receive allocations from Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada for study permits, with each province granted the autonomy to determine the distribution of these permits among authorized post-secondary institutions within their respective jurisdictions.