This Fall, International Students Are Heading Elsewhere | The Tyee

This Fall, International Students Are Heading Elsewhere | The Tyee

As B.C.’s university and college students head back to campus this week, some learners will be noticeably absent.

Almost two years after the federal government announced it would cap international student permits, the province’s public post-secondary institutions are struggling to bring international students through their doors.

Of the 25 public post-secondary institutions in B.C., 19 responded to The Tyee’s questions about whether they anticipated filling their international student seats for the fall 2025 semester.

Of those, only two institutions — the University of British Columbia and the University of Victoria — said they enrolled the number of international students they planned to for the fall 2025 semester.

The British Columbia Institute of Technology told The Tyee that while it had not yet enrolled enough students to fill its international student quota, it was on track to do soThe Tyee is supported by readers like you

A further 11 institutions — Kwantlen Polytechnic University, College of New Caledonia, College of the Rockies, Coast Mountain College, Douglas College, Capilano University, Langara College, University of the Fraser Valley, Justice Institute of British Columbia, Emily Carr University of Art + Design and Okanagan College — told The Tyee they are not expecting to welcome as many international students as they could have accepted this fall.

Another five institutions — University of Northern British Columbia, Vancouver Island University, North Island College, Royal Roads University and Simon Fraser University — said it was too early to say as enrolment deadlines had not yet passed.

Not all schools have the same reliance on international students. The Justice Institute of British Columbia, for example, focuses on educating local public safety professionals.

Other schools, however, have relied on the tuition brought in by international students to subsidize domestic tuition rates.

“This year’s application volume is lower than in previous cycles and that speaks to the impacts of the federal immigration policy changes,” read an emailed statement from Emily Carr University of Art + Design.

How Canada’s system works

Prior to 2024, international students had a less complicated application experience. The first step remains the same: to apply and get accepted into a Canadian school.

Then the potential international student would take their acceptance letter to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to apply for immigration and receive either a student visa, which would allow them to travel to Canada to study, or a letter of introduction, which an international student handed to the border guard when they first entered Canada in exchange for a study permit.

“Which is the thing that says you can be here in Canada and then come and go for whatever the length of the program is,” said Phil Ollenberg, associate faculty in the school of education and technology at Royal Roads University.

When applying, students were required to demonstrate they had access to $10,000, in addition to their tuition money, to survive financially without also working here.

Under the new system, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada issues each province and territory an allotment of provincial attestation letters, often referred to as PALs. International students must receive a PAL in order to apply for their study permits.

Provincial and territorial governments divide their allotted PALs among post-secondary schools, and the schools then give PALs to international students who meet their application standards. After that, students send their permit applications to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. But those permit applications can take months to process.

As a result, not all students who receive their PALs will get their study permits before classes begin. Those students have to defer their studies or drop out of their program.

“We can confirm that new international student applications for the 2025 fall semester have declined significantly as compared to 2024 and 2023,” a spokesperson for Okanagan College told The Tyee via email, “and it is unlikely that the College will require all of the PALs that have been allocated for this year.”

This isn’t just a B.C. problem. Last week Universities Canada told news media international student enrolment has dropped below the government’s reduced study permit numbers at post-secondary institutions countrywide.

Multiple successive changes to the international student program have destabilized Canada’s international reputation, says Ollenberg.

Those changes include the doubling of savings students must bring with them to over $22,000 from $10,000; the 35 per cent reduction in study permits announced in 2024, which further decreased by 10 per cent to 437,000 permits in 2025; decreased weekly work hours for international students to 24 from 40; and restrictions to the postgraduate work permit program.

“It is very easy to harm a brand, and I think we saw that through a series of very rapid, minimally announced or unpredictable changes in our bureaucratic process,” Ollenberg said.

The Tyee requested an interview with B.C. Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills Minister Jessie Sunner, but she was not made available. Instead Sunner sent an emailed statement that echoed much of what Ollenberg told The Tyee.

“International students are important to B.C.’s post-secondary system, the diversity of thought within it, and in helping to meet labour market demand across the province,” Sunner’s statement read.

“Unilateral and sudden federal changes to study and work permits have impacted Canada’s reputation as an academic destination and disrupted recruitment, leading to lower enrolment and financial strain for institutions.”

In an emailed statement sent to The Tyee, a spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said that much like the allocation of provincial letters of attestation, post-secondary education is a provincial and territorial responsibility.

“As such, we cannot comment on allocation usage,” the statement read.

Tuition losses and program losses

Unlike Canadian students, whose tuition is subsidized by the provincial and federal governments, international students pay full price.

This means international students’ tuition rates are many times that of domestic students.

In the 2022-23 academic year, for example, international tuitions were, at an average of $32,909 per semester, 426 per cent higher than domestic tuition rates, according to the BC Federation of Students.

Prior to 2024, also according to data from the BC Federation of Students, international student tuition made up almost half of total tuition revenue for B.C. post-secondary institutions, despite international students accounting for just 20 per cent of students.

At the same time that international student tuition has increased, both per student and in terms of share of total tuition revenue, provincial government operational funding for public post-secondary institutions has decreased to 40 per cent of overall revenue, down from 68 per cent in 2000.

International students don’t just bring money; their presence also increases program options, especially for schools with campuses in sparsely populated regions, says Laurie Waye, president and chief operating officer of Coast Mountain College.

“By adding international students to that cohort, well, now we have a viable class size,” said Waye, who also chairs BC Colleges, an association of public post-secondary colleges in the province.

Negative impact on BC, local economies

In 2022, the most recent year for which data is available, international students contributed an estimated $7.5 billion to the province’s economy, according to the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, supporting close to 80,000 jobs and adding $5.7 billion to B.C.’s gross domestic product.

Many international students take part-time jobs while studying in Canada. Some students bring their spouses, too, who could previously also apply for temporary work permits. (That also changed this past January; work permits are now limited to spouses of international students in particular graduate and doctoral-level programs of 16 months or longer.)

For the six out of 10 B.C. public colleges that operate in small or rural communities, international students used to make up a significant percentage of the workforce, both as working students and as graduates starting their careers.

“Our [international] graduates were getting jobs at Northern Health, the credit union, the school district — jobs that had gone vacant because we’ve had such a labour shortage here,” said Waye.

With B.C. predicting one million new job openings over the next decade, Waye is concerned that without more international students attending B.C. schools, we won’t be able to fill those positions.

“For a lot of those jobs, we don’t have enough people going into those areas of study: construction trades, health care, early childhood care and education,” she said, adding international students show great interest in Coast Mountain College’s early childhood education program.

“If Canada continues to be considered less of a desirable study option... then we could really see a great impact on the availability of local daycares.”

In their emailed statement to The Tyee, the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada spokesperson wrote that changes to who gets to remain in Canada to work after graduation are linked to the country’s “long-term economic and labour needs.”

“Eligible fields of study include those in health care and social services, education, and trade categories. This alignment is intended to enable graduates to transition more seamlessly from education into the areas of the workforce in greatest need, and later, potentially become permanent residents,” the statement reads.

Because the postgraduate work permit allows graduates to work anywhere in the country, it would not make sense to target them to local instead of national labour needs, the spokesperson added.

Changes needed to happen, experts say

Both Waye and Ollenberg acknowledge there were issues with Canada’s international student program.

In addition to accusations that international students were “cash cows” for public post-secondary institutions struggling to cover operating expenses in the wake of declining government funds, some less reputable private schools and immigration consultants were credibly accused of defrauding students by charging them tens of thousands of dollars for an education that was never delivered.

When students weren’t being overcharged, they were harassed, abused and even sexually exploited by employers and landlords that took advantage of their lack of knowledge of local labour and tenants’ rights. Many students died in Canada, some by accident, others by suicide.

At the same time, international students were blamed for Canada’s decade-plus housing crisis, after their national population grew to one million in 2023 from 352,000 in 2015.

In its emailed statement to The Tyee, the federal government defended its changes to the international student program in light of challenges presented by the substantial international student growth, as well as growth in immigration overall.

“Canada is addressing pressures by taking responsible measures to achieve stable growth, announcing an ambitious federal housing plan, and better aligning immigration streams with the labour market,” the statement read.

“[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada] is also setting up pathways to permanent residence for individuals wishing to establish themselves in Canada and to become citizens, while also balancing the role of temporary workers to sustain the economy.”

To fix the program in the future, Waye says, the federal government needs to align program changes — such as limits on what study programs allow students to apply for postgraduate work permits — with local and provincial economic outlooks instead of federal ones.

She would also like to see the federal government consult regularly and consistently with provincial and territorial governments before making any more changes to the program.

For its part, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada says it consulted with the provinces, territories, education institutions and other stakeholders in spring and summer 2024.

“Improved collaboration is needed to support a balanced approach to international student recruitment and retention and sustainable talent development — especially in rural communities.” 

In her emailed statement to The Tyee, Post-Secondary Education Minister Sunner said her office has “repeatedly raised concerns with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada about the lack of consultation and the impact of abrupt policy shifts.”