Canada unlikely to hit foreign student targets

Decline attributed to stricter study permit standards, steep drop in Indian applicants

- NICHOLAS KEUNG

Canada’s processing of new study permits has fallen by half since rules were changed to rein in the number of international students, and the decline is so steep that it may not even meet its reduced 2024 target, according to the latest immigration data.

The free fall is the result of a considerable drop in Indian students’ applications and the rising overall refusal rate for study permits, says an analysis of the first-quarter data from the Immigration Department.

“The Canadian international education landscape has evolved considerably over the past six months,” said the report released Wednesday by ApplyBoard, an online marketplace for learning institutions and international students.

“The data is starting to illustrate the effects of these updated policies.”

Since January, Ottawa made several changes to slow the intake of international students, with the aim of reducing the new study permits issued by 28 per cent to 291,914 from last year’s 404,668.

To reach that target, immigration officials will have to process a total of 552,095 applications, based on a projected 40per-cent refusal rate.

Study permit processing was temporarily paused for weeks after Immigration Minister Marc Miller imposed the newly required provincial attestation letter in the application, as provinces scrambled to develop the infrastructure to issue the documents.