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College students and pedestrians strolling alongside Gould St. on the Toronto Metropolitan College campus on Jan 22.Fred Lum/ Ontario Chronicle
Postsecondary establishments are grappling with a pointy drop in international scholar numbers as Ottawa clamps down on worldwide research permits. Ontario schools, the largest monetary winners through the enrolment growth years, stand to be the largest losers.
It’s no secret that the majority public schools and universities in Canada boosted enrolment of worldwide college students over the past decade, however Ontario’s faculty sector is a stark outlier, with international college students accounting for 42 per cent of all enrolments final 12 months, in line with new numbers from Statistics Canada.
Schools in B.C. had been the second-most reliant on international college students, who made up 24 per cent of public faculty enrolment there.
The surge in worldwide college students put vital income into faculty coffers, because of these college students paying tuition that’s roughly thrice larger than home college students. An estimated two-thirds of all tuition charges within the Ontario faculty sector got here from worldwide college students final 12 months, in line with a report by Greater Schooling Technique Associates, a consulting agency.
However the inflow additionally put critical pressure on public providers and native housing markets, and in response the federal authorities has launched quite a lot of measures to scale back the variety of worldwide college students, together with a 35-per-cent discount in new research permits this 12 months, an extra 10-per-cent reduce in 2025 and restrictions on postgraduation work permits.
Schools are already feeling the squeeze, with officers warning of steep drops in enrolment numbers and revenues this 12 months, forcing faculties to shut some packages and halt capital spending on initiatives.
Decoder is a weekly characteristic that unpacks an essential financial chart.
