Canada has announced a reduction in the intake cap on international student study permits for 2025, a move that will adversely impact Indian students who aspire to study there.
With this reduction, Canada has cut its study permit target by 10% from the 2024 goal of 485,000 down to 437,000 for the year 2025. In 2023, the number of study permits issued to international students reached a peak of 500,000.
The 2026 intake cap for study permits will be consistent with the 2025 cap, and the 2025–2026 study permit quota will include both master’s and doctoral students, who are now required to provide a provincial or territorial attestation letter.
The reduction will significantly affect Indian students, who make up almost 40% of all international students in Canada. From 2013 to 2023, the number of Indians immigrating to Canada increased from 32,828 to 139,715, marking a 326% rise, according to the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP).
The enrolment of Indians at Canadian universities has also rose more than 5,800% in the last two decades, from 2,181 in 2000 to 1,28,928 in 2021.
There are about 13.35 lakh Indian students studying abroad of which about 4,27,000 are studying in Canada, shows recent data released by the Indian government.
In a post on X, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the Canada government is granting 35% fewer international student permits this year. And next year, “that number’s going down by another 10%”.
“Immigration is an advantage for our economy — but when bad actors abuse the system and take advantage of students, we crack down,” he wrote adding that stricter regulations will be implemented for foreign workers.
“We’re reducing the number of low-wage, temporary foreign workers and shortening the duration of their work terms. We adjusted the program after the pandemic, but the labour market’s changed. We need businesses to invest in Canadian workers,” Trudeau added.
Notably, international education accounts for over $22 billion in economic activity annually in Canada. This is greater than its exports of auto parts, lumber or aircraft, and supports more than 200,000 jobs in Canada.
The decline in international student numbers in 2020 led to a loss exceeding $7 billion in Canada’s gross domestic product for the same year.