Canada cuts study permits, applications may fall by 50% – Investing Abroad News

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The decision of the Canadian government to drastically reduce the international study permit for three years – 2024, 2025, 2026 – is likely to bring down applications from Indian students by nearly 50%, said study abroad experts.

On Wednesday, Marc Miller, minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship, announced new study permit cap levels with 35% fewer permits this year, and reducing it further by 10% for 2025 and 2026.

“We are anticipating applications to decline by almost a half over the next 12 months because of the negative signal that the Canadian government is sending out. This could have been communicated better, but that did not happen thanks to the rhetoric ahead of the elections next year,” said Akshay Chaturvedi, founder and CEO at Leverage Edu, a study abroad platform.

The student mobility from India has already been affected following a political row between the countries in September last year. “Applications for the current year are down by 40% and the recent announcement will further dampen the sentiment,” said the head of another platform.

Experts said the reduction in study permits could cause an irreparable loss for Canada. “International students from India and the rest of Asia as well as Africa are a different set today. They now have more options. Countries like Germany, France and South Korea have introduced English-speaking courses that are aligned with industry needs. Today, the job outlook in Germany is far better than Canada. It is likely that the Canada might not be able to recover the lost market share,” said Chaturvedi.

Canada’s higher education market picked up in 2016-17 as students who wanted to pursue studies in North America preferred Canada over the US because of former president Donald Trump’s anti-immigration stance. But, the lack of a structured approach in handling the rise in student enrolments has started to bother Canadian authorities.

“The Canadian government doesn’t have a demand-supply analysis for international students. Just 18 months ago, international students were struggling to find homes in the country due to the housing crisis. The other big issue is that its higher education programmes are not industry-focused,” said the person quoted above.

India is a significant source market for Canadian universities, accounting for almost 41% of overall international student enrolments in 2023. A bulk of the students (80%) opt for post-graduation courses in Canada due to shorter duration and better return on investment.

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