Ford government set to give almost all international student spots to public colleges and universities

“We are protecting the integrity of our province’s post-secondary education system by attracting the best and brightest international students to Ontario to study in areas that are critical to our economy,” Dunlop said in a written statement.

“We have been working with post-secondary institutions to ensure international students are enrolled in the programs to support a pipeline of graduates for in-demand jobs.”

Applications will be prioritized for skilled trades, STEM and child-care programs, and no school will be allowed to go above its current permit numbers, the government said.

The province is also setting a firm ratio to limit the share of new international permits to be higher than 55 per cent of any school’s first-year domestic enrolment, and says that colleges and universities must “guarantee that housing options are available for incoming international students.”

The allocation of the limited international enrolment spots was a huge blow to private career college sector, which will not receive any applications.

“Career Colleges Ontario (CCO) is disappointed by the absence of permit allocations for our member institutions,” said Adrian Sharma, chair of the industry group that represents many of the province’s 600 private colleges.

“However, we see opportunity for the federal government and the province to collaborate on lifting the permit cap to help address the urgent labour market demand for the skilled workers our institutions overwhelmingly train.”

Steve Orsini, president and CEO of the Council of Universities, said the province’s approach “recognizes that Ontario’s universities have been responsible in their recruitment and management of international recruitment. This means universities in Ontario can continue to attract the best and the brightest talent from across the globe.”

However, he added, “the decision to cap international undergraduate allocations at 2023 levels will restrict the ability for universities to modestly increase enrolment, which will exacerbate financial pressures on the sector.”

Federal immigration minister Marc Miller recently told a democracy forum at Toronto Metropolitan University that he would not tolerate “good actors” being penalized by provinces, and on Wednesday posted on social media that he is “eager to review the details of this announcement in more depth, but this appears to be a very reasonable response by the Government of Ontario.”

Changes to the international student program came after a clampdown by the federal government, with the number of study permit holders in Canada tripling in the past decade — from 300,000 in 2013 to more than 900,000 last year — fuelled by aggressive recruiting by the post-secondary education sector and by unregulated foreign agents. The highly valued international education program has gradually eroded to a “backdoor entry” for permanent residence.

Ottawa has put a two-year cap on international study permits, with a plan to reduce the number by 35 per cent, to 364,000, in part to also address a housing crunch in many of the communities with large numbers of foreign students. The cap does not apply to master’s or doctoral students or those in elementary or secondary schools.

The move has already led to forecasts of sharp revenue losses in Ontario, where Tuesday’s provincial budget noted some $3 billion in revenues will disappear over the next three years because of fewer high-tuition paying foreign students in colleges alone. That has contributed to a ballooning $9.8-billion provincial deficit.

A large part of the explosion in international student numbers was due to growing partnerships between public and private colleges. 

According to the Ontario government, 22 of 23 public universities will keep applications at the 2023 level; only Algoma University will see a decline from last year. While 11 of 24 public colleges will maintain the same level, those with public-private college partnerships and Conestoga College will see the largest decline.

Schools have said the wait for the Ontario government to act has only fuelled uncertainty about studying in the province.

While public colleges are pleased with the province’s plan, they were disappointed there’s nothing in the plan for the financial recovery of the sector during “this abrupt change,” that they say has led to the collapse of the spring cohort that represents almost one quarter of total their enrolment.

“This has resulted in significant efforts to reduce costs, as colleges are not permitted to run unfunded deficits,” said Marketa Evans, president and CEO of Colleges Ontario, which represents the public colleges.

“The consequences include immediate program suspensions and a pause on capital investments that include investments in student housing. There will be a severe impact on the fall term at public colleges, with revenue losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars. No organization can absorb such losses without significant cuts to operations.” 

The public colleges’ ability to deliver quality programs continues to be harmed by the ongoing tuition freeze that was implemented after the province cut tuition by 10 per cent in 2019, she added.

As of Wednesday, Alberta, B.C., Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec and Saskatchewan have mechanisms in place as to how they plan to distribute their share of spots and the required attestation letters to students proving they have an offer from an authorized institution.