Cap hammers international student enrolment as Ontario colleges brace for more changes

The enrolment of international students at Ontario colleges has dropped roughly 50 per cent already this year. Leaders are warning it will lead to labour shortages.

The Ontario government and its public colleges are both sounding the alarm over an impending labour shortage as the impact of a cap on international students begins to bite in the province’s post-secondary sector.

At the beginning of the year, as part of a plan to cut the number of temporary residents, the Trudeau government brought in a strict cap on the number of international students colleges and universities could accept.

While Ontario’s 44 post-secondary institutions continue to study the impacts of the reduction, colleges say the volume of students has already dropped after the initial cut in enrolment.

“We’ve definitely seen the impact of that,” Marketa Evans, president and CEO of Colleges Ontario, told Global News. “In September of this past year, the international student enrolment at Ontario colleges is about half of what it was in September of last year.”

The federal cap is set to become tighter still next year, when Canada issues 437,000 study permits, down 10 per cent from the 485,000 permits issued in 2024.

The substantial drop has left colleges fighting two separate battles: looking to maintain their financial health, while continuing to provide enough graduates to fill vacancies in Ontario’s labour markets.

The latter concern appears to be top of mind for the Ford government’s recently-appointed Minister of Colleges and Universities, Nolan Quinn.

“We’re more worried about the labour market,” Quinn told Global News. “There’s labour market shortages whether it’s in STEM, health care, skilled trades.”