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After two years of immigration cuts, including caps on the total number of international students who will be granted student visas, Canada’s international student intake has dwindled to what they were in the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, preliminary data from Statistics Canada shows.
Between the academic years 2003-2004 and 2023-2024, the number of full-time international students in public post-secondary institutions in Canada increased eightfold. But after the federal government pumped the brakes with a student cap in January 2024, the numbers started to dwindle, data shows, falling by one-third.
According to new estimates, the number of full-time international students in public post-secondary institutions decreased four per cent for the academic year 2024-2025 and 26 per cent in 2025-26, Statistics Canada said.
This brings their numbers back to levels recorded in 2021-2022, when the COVID-19 pandemic led to enrolment declining across Canada.
In 2023, the number of international students enrolled in public colleges (288,801) surpassed those in universities (284,160) but the cuts to immigration levels affected college enrolment sharply.
While there was only a slight decline in the year 2024-2025 (three per cent), college enrolment plummeted by 40 per cent in 2025-2026. This marks a 42 per cent decline in international student enrolment in colleges since 2023-2024.
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International student enrolment in universities dropped 17 per cent from 2023-2024 to 2025-2026, dropping to pre-pandemic (2019-2020) levels.
Ontario saw the steepest decline in international student enrolment, dropping six per cent in 2024-2025 and 36 per cent in 2025-2026.
In 2023-2024, Ontario was home to six out of 10 international students in Canada. Last year, that share declined to 54 per cent.
The purpose of the international student cap, which was introduced by the Justin Trudeau government and extended by the Mark Carney government, is to reduce the number of temporary residents in Canada to below five per cent of the total population by the end of 2027.
This year, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) expects to issue up to 408,000 study permits, including 155,000 to newly arriving international students and 253,000 extensions for current and returning students.
This number is seven per cent lower than the 2025 target of 437,000 and 16 per cent lower than the 2024 target of 485,000, IRCC said in November.
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
