Enrolment drops below new cap

Universities Canada president says decline will create biggest hit in memory to school budgets

- LAURA OSMAN

Universities Canada president and CEO Gabriel Miller said the full impact of the drop in international students won't be clear until schools see how many students turn up in September.

Fewer students are coming from abroad to study at Canadian universities this fall, and Universities Canada is warning that the numbers have dropped below the cap the federal government set on international student visas this year.

The immigration minister announced a cap in January as a way to quell the rapid increase in the number of international students, citing pressure on housing, health care and other services.

The new policy limits the number of student visa applications the government would accept into processing, and that was expected to result in a 35 per cent drop in the number of students in 2024 compared to last year.

“The drop just within universities will be well beyond that,” said Gabriel Miller, president of Universities Canada.

“This is a hit, a national hit to university budgets that we haven’t seen in modern memory.”

The cap created uncertainty for prospective students, and the Immigration Department’s pause in visa processing while the government implemented the changes may have led those students to look elsewhere, he said.