Canada Announced Update for Post Study Work Rules and Enrolment Cap of International Students

Ever since beginning of 2024, Canada has been trying to streamline the incoming international student population to curb the housing shortages native people are facing there. For 2024 it had set a cap of 485,000 students and for the 2025 and 2026 period it is targeted to bring it down to 437,000 incumbents. While Canada might have fair reasons, the international student market is set to lose around CA$ 1.6 billion and people linked to the industry are lashing out at Canada for the corrective measures they have put in place again.

The original policies were designed to address the public's mounting dissatisfaction with the shortage of affordable housing and healthcare, which some have connected to an increase in the number of temporary migrants entering Canada who require housing. The present Canadian Government has made it clear time and time again that it wants to go back to a more quality-oriented system. The current changes, however, fail to acknowledge accountable institutions and place additional burdens on the best students who wish to contribute to Canada, as they are already restricting graduate students and researchers.

Firstly, there is no guaranteed PGWP of 3 years for international graduates graduating from Public Colleges, as it will depend on the demand of the profession in the national market of Canada. While people claim that it will disrupt hugely the functioning of local market of the cities. While those graduating from universities in Canada, do not need to worry as their PGWP tenure will remain the same. A lot of Public Colleges see it as a favoritism to Universities.

People believe that the public college system in Ontario cannot be so severely disrupted. Due to the budgetary constraints brought on them by the decline in international enrollment, universities will have to cut back on or discontinue their program offerings, depriving domestic students for the opportunity to enroll in programs that are necessary to meet urgent labor shortages. As a roll-on effect, it will also disrupt the local balance of labor force in Ontario, which was of great use in the local market, in the form of skilled international students.

Spouses of graduate level students, whose programs are less than 16 months, do not have an unrestricted work permit anymore, which earlier they used to have and was a big factor in choosing Canada. Also, students who are looking for a PGWP and later settle down in Canada, have the new language benchmarks to contend with. University level students need to hit a 7, in the CLB and College level students need to hit a 5 for the same to attain a Post Graduate Work Permit.

Owing to all these amendments, a drop of 50% is expected in international student numbers when the data for 2024 comes out.

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