Toronto·Analysis

What the cap on international students means for Doug Ford's government 

Premier Doug Ford’s government faces a sharp reduction in what has been a lucrative source of funding for Ontario’s colleges and universities, now that Ottawa plans to slash the number of international students allowed into Canada.

Facing 50% cut to foreign students, Ontario must decide how colleges and universities will share the pain

Mike Crawley · CBC News(Martin Trainor/CBC)

"Many colleges and universities have passed the point where they could survive financially with only domestic students. They are financially sustainable only because of international students," said the report. 

At Ontario's universities, international students accounted for about one-sixth of total enrolment in undergraduate programs in 2021-22, the most recent year for which dataare available. In addition to those 69,000 international undergraduates, there were another 23,000 foreign students in graduate programs, such as masters and doctoral degrees. 

Foreign student enrolment tripled in 5 years

Ontario's colleges are even more acutely dependent on international students' tuition fees: 

• The number of international students enrolled at Ontario's colleges exceeded 110,000 in 2021-22 (the most recent year for which statisticsare available), triple the number from five years earlier. 

• Colleges' revenue from international student fees will be roughly $3.3 billion this year versus $1.9 billion in provincial government funding and $1 billion in domestic student fees, according to an estimateby Higher Education Strategy Associates.  

• International students now outnumber domestic students at no fewer than nine of Ontario's 24 publicly funded colleges. 

• Ontario provides colleges with less per-student funding than every other province, according to an auditor general report  

Ontario's colleges have relied on international student recruitment to make up for shortfalls in government funding and cuts to domestic tuition fees, says Alain Roy, vice president of international partnerships for Colleges and Institutes Canada, an association representing 140 publicly-funded post-secondary schools. 

The changes announced to the international student visa program and post-graduate work permits will have a huge impact, said Roy.

• Cap on student visas could wreak financial havoc on Ontario universities, colleges: officials

"Early signals from college presidents across the country, but also in Ontario, is that this could lead to program closures, campus closures. It will certainly mean a number of layoffs," Roy said in an interview. 

No more work permits for certain students

Particularly vulnerable will be the programs offered by 15 of Ontario's publicly funded colleges but delivered by private firms. 

Known as public college-private partnerships, the programs are specifically targeted to international students and provide them with a diploma or certificate from the public college. Ontario's auditor general reportedthat 24,000 international students were enrolled in such programs in the fall of 2020. 

Those students have been eligible for a Canadian work permit after graduation, but Miller announcedon Monday that will no longer be the case. 

Canada to cap number of international students

2 days agoDuration 2:54The federal government has announced it will cap the amount of international student permits it will approve for two years. The immigration minister says the change will help prevent students from attending ‘sham’ institutions.

David Orazietti, president of Sault College, says this change will "in effect shut down" his college's programs delivered by the private Trios College to about 2,800 international students in Toronto and Brampton.

He says it's unfair for the federal government to target those public college programs just because they are delivered by private partners. 

30% of college's budget

"There are many public colleges in Ontario that need these resources to help create sustainability, and frankly this means the difference of having a balanced budget or having a deficit," Orazietti said in an interview. 

He said the programs account for about 30 per cent of Sault College's $125-million annual budget. 

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Usher says those programs are keeping several Ontario colleges afloat. 

"You take that money away, there's going to be some real issues in I would say half a dozen colleges across the province," he said.