OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada announced on Monday the establishment of a two-year “temporary cap” on study permits granted to foreign students in order to ease pressure on housing.
The number of study permits granted in 2024 will be around 360,000, a drop of 35% compared to 2023, specifies the Ministry of Immigration in a press release.
Minister Marc Miller declared that the federal government would work with the provinces, responsible for educational policies, to apply this quota.
The rapid growth of the student population, due to the increase in foreign applicants, is putting pressure on the education system, the health sector and has contributed to increasing housing costs, he explained.
The minister also singled out private establishments which “take advantage” of the arrival of foreign students to impose high tuition fees on under-equipped campuses.
The number of non-permanent residents – mainly students – increased by 312,758 people in the third quarter of 2023 in Canada, the largest increase in more than five decades.
(Reporting Steve Scherer and Promit Mukherjee, French version Gaëlle Sheehan, edited by Sophie Louet)
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