Students and pedestrians walking along Gould St. on the Toronto Metropolitan University campus on Jan 22.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Postsecondary institutions are grappling with a sharp drop in foreign student numbers as Ottawa clamps down on international study permits. Ontario colleges, the biggest financial winners during the enrolment boom years, stand to be the biggest losers.
It’s no secret that most public colleges and universities in Canada boosted enrolment of international students over the last decade, but Ontario’s college sector is a stark outlier, with foreign students accounting for 42 per cent of all enrolments in the 2022-2023 academic year, according to new numbers from Statistics Canada.
Colleges in B.C. were the second-most reliant on foreign students, who made up 24 per cent of public college enrolment there.
The surge in international students put significant revenue into college coffers, thanks to those students paying tuition that’s roughly three times higher than domestic students. An estimated two-thirds of all tuition fees in the Ontario college sector came from international students last year, according to a report by Higher Education Strategy Associates, a consulting firm.
But the influx also put serious strain on public services and local housing markets, and in response the federal government has introduced a number of measures to reduce the number of international students, including a 35-per-cent reduction in new study permits this year, an additional 10-per-cent cut in 2025 and restrictions on postgraduation work permits.
Colleges are already feeling the squeeze, with officials warning of steep drops in enrolment numbers and revenues this year, forcing schools to close some programs and halt capital spending on projects.
Editor’s note: (Nov. 22, 2024): An earlier version of this article contained an incorrect year for Statistics Canada's data on the percentage of foreign student enrolments in Ontario colleges. This version has been corrected.
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