Canada’s Student Cap: Sector Warns Reduced Target is Still Out of Reach
2 Min Read
The Canadian government’s attempt to cool down its international student programme is facing a sharp reality check from the education sector. Stakeholders across the country are warning that even the latest, reduced target for 2026 study permits is likely to be missed by a significant margin.
For two years running, the actual number of new international students arriving in Canada has fallen dramatically short of the government’s own caps. This isn’t just a slight miss; the decline has been so pronounced that experts are comparing the slump to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student arrivals. With visa approval rates at historically low levels, the sector is struggling to attract and process new applications efficiently.
The government’s new, lower cap aims to issue up to 408,000 study permits in 2026, which is a 7% reduction from the previous year. However, with the system already struggling to meet much higher numbers, many feel this adjustment is simply not enough to correct the course. The drastic decline is creating a serious financial squeeze for many institutions, particularly colleges that rely heavily on the higher international tuition fees to balance their books.
Furthermore, the policy shift; which is designed to ease pressure on housing and public services, has inadvertently made Canada appear less welcoming on the global stage. While the government has wisely exempted Master’s and Doctoral students from the cap to continue attracting high-level talent, the overall message to prospective undergraduate and college students is one of increased competition and uncertainty.
The government’s decision to limit student intake, while understandable given the strain on Canadian infrastructure, is creating a deep sense of instability within the country’s once-booming international education sector. For institutions, the focus must now shift to strategic, high-quality recruitment rather than volume, while the government needs to urgently address the root cause of the low approval rates. Until the system can process applications reliably and efficiently, the new cap, no matter how low, will remain an arbitrary number that the country simply cannot reach, risking the loss of valuable talent and revenue in the process.
Source: THE PIE NEWS
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