Colleges brace for financial hit on Canada’s foreign student crackdown
The decision by the government of Ontario will hit hardest at colleges that have been relying entirely on foreign enrollments to drive recent growth. Colleges Ontario, an industry group, said revenue losses will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars this fall.
That will mean “immediate program suspensions” and a pause on capital spending, Marketa Evans, the group’s CEO, said in a statement. “No organization can absorb such losses without significant cuts to operations.”
Individual colleges and universities in Ontario will be restricted to a maximum of 55 international-student permits for every 100 Canadian students enrolling in first-year programs, with some exceptions. The number of permits also can’t exceed the institution’s levels last year.
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Study in Canada: Ontario plans to allocate nearly all study permits to public colleges and universities
Ontario’s government said Conestoga College, which had the highest number of study permits last year, and colleges that are public-private partnerships will see the largest decline.
The provincial announcement is in response to a two-year cap on the number of foreign students imposed by the federal government, which has been rolling back its immigration plans amid angst over housing shortages.
Public-private programs, many of them in and around Toronto, have been massive drivers of Canada’s rapid increases in foreign students. These hybrid schools have taken over office buildings
