Nova Scotia’s international student visa allowance has been reduced by 35 per cent, as announced during the Province House’s debate on the provincial budget.
Nova Scotia’s advanced education minister Brian Wong told the sub-committee on supply that the province has received the total count on international student applications it can allow for the 2024-25 school year, which is 12,900, and is to be shared by universities, NSCC, private career colleges, and language schools.
This is a drop of 7,000 applications from last year, and is in alignment with Ottawa’s target of reducing international student applications by 35% across Canada, according to The Hamilton Spectator.
On January 22, IRCC Minister Marc Miller announced an intake cap on international study permit applications to stabilize growth for a temporary period of two years. For 2024, the cap is expected to result in approximately 360,000 approved study permits.
IRCC also announced that individual provincial and territorial caps have been determined, weighted by population, which will result in much more significant decreases in provinces where the international student population has seen the most unsustainable growth.
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The announcement by Wong is one of the first public revelations regarding the federal government’s provincial allocations.
All designated learning institutions in Nova Scotia will be sharing the 12,900 quota, but Wong did not detail how this number will be divided – whether every school gets an equal share, for example, or if it is weighted by another factor such as the school’s enrolment numbers or international student population.
While DLIs just learned about the 12,900 figure, the province has till the end of this month to determine the allocation.
NS universities welcomed 14,500 international students in 2023-24, while the country as a whole was home to more than 1 million international students.
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Canada has introduced many measures recently to ensure the International Student Program works for in-coming students.
This includes:
- Updating the cost-of-living requirement, which was introduced on January 1 for study permit holders to better reflect the “true” cost of living in Canada and help prevent vulnerability and exploitation;
- Requiring post-secondary DLIs since December 1 to confirm every letter of acceptance submitted by an applicant outside Canada directly with IRCC;
- Intending to implement targeted pilots aimed at helping underrepresented cohorts of international students pursue their studies in Canada in 2024.