Canada Announced International Student Enrolment Cap for 2025

Canada has seen a lot of changes in its policy for international students, over the last couple of years. As Canada was an international hub of education for students, now the economy has started to feel the burden as there have been cases of insufficient housing and exorbitant housing prices for locals. As a result, the Canadian Government has taken stringent measures such as enrolment caps, changes regarding Post Study Work Rights, fixing caps for provinces and institutions, to make the arrangements sustainable for the longer run. 

For 2025,Canada has put an enrolment cap of 437,000 international student entries including all the levels of education right from undergraduate, to graduate, to language schools, to diplomas. The number has also come down from 485,000 in2024, signaling a 10% decrease in the allotted caps as compared to the last year. This number will also include exchange students and students who are already studying there and need an extension. Out of the total cap, around 17% of seats are going to be distributed among students of Master & Doctoral programs.

On top of the already hard to digest policy changes for international students, they also need to get Provincial Attestation Letter (PAL). Now what is PAL? Now that there is a national cap on the number of international students for the year, this cap also extends to the provinces, and the provinces can distribute this stipulated number of PALs among their recognized institutions. It is like rationing of students, with each province getting its share, while that flows down to the institutions as per the stipulated numbers assigned to them. Overall,316,276 of the 437,000 study permits will go to students who must apply with a PAL. This includes college students, undergraduate students, language students, students in graduate diploma programs, and master as well doctoral programs. These segments make up most of the applications submitted every year to study in Canada.

In Ontario, the student-centered province, there is another story unfolding in terms of the above discussed PAL’s. It is said that the top brass in Ontario education sector aims at giving 96% of the PALs to public institutions, 4% to language schools and nothing to private colleges. All this is being done keeping in mind the professional output and making professionals mold in the way required for the Ontario workforce.

While there have been huge question marks over the constant policy shuffles, it is believed that the cap enrolment will not fill up to its potential, due to the confusion and uncertainty around Canada’s international education sector currently.