Just recently, the final allotment of study permits for each province in 2024 was announced by Canada’s immigration department, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). This comes after the declaration in January 2024 that there would be a limit on the annual processing of study permit applications.
Getting a Handle on Allocations:
At first, IRCC allocated funds according to the population of each province. However, compared to 2023, this method would have resulted in an uneven distribution, with some provinces obtaining much fewer international students than others.
Finding the Right Balance: In order to address this, IRCC made certain changes:
Provinces with High Growth Caps: The allocations were set at 10% of the population for provinces that were expected to see a significant increase in international students compared to 2023. Our goal here is to make sure that some areas don’t get a flood of people.
Assisting Provinces with Low Approval: The opposite was true for provinces whose approval rates for study permits have been consistently lower; these provinces were given extra funding until they reached their predicted approval rate.
Leading the Pack: With 235,000 study permits, Ontario took first place, thanks to its vast population and 530 designated learning institutions (DLIs). Unfortunately, private universities and colleges will have less options after a recent provincial announcement showed that 96% will attend public institutions.
The province of Quebec, known for its thriving academic community, was granted 117,917 study permits, while British Columbia followed suit. Earlier this year, the educationally and environmentally renowned province of British Columbia announced an allocation of 83,000, with a more equitable split between public and private schools.
The province of Alberta, which is home to 11.67 percent of Canada’s population, had its allocation limited to 40,894 permits, or 10% of the total, in an effort to control population growth. An additional 7,472 permits were allocated to Nova Scotia by IRCC, increasing their total allocation to 20,378.
Processed Permits vs. Issued Permits: A Crucial Difference
Recognizing that research permissions are either “processed” or “issued” is critical. The quantity of permits that can be authorized is beyond of IRCC’s authority, although the agency can limit the amount of applications it handles. Applying a 60% national approval rate to the capped number of processed applications (around 606,000) yields an estimated number of issued permits (about 360,000).
In the Future:
The goal of these distributions is to control the number of overseas students while making sure that each province gets its fair share. It is unclear, however, how this will affect private Ontario schools or whether they will face competition for permits from other provinces. It is recommended that prospective overseas students familiarize themselves with the application procedures and allocation specifics of individual institutions and provinces.
