A college administrator says it’s “too early to tell” what the impact of further cuts to international student visas promised in the recent federal budget will be on Cambrian College, which has already seen its foreign student enrolment plummet.
The new levels plan cuts in half the planned number of student visas for the next three years, bringing it down to 155,000 in 2026 from about 306,000 in the previous year's plan, said a Canadian Press report on the Nov. 4 federal budget.
The government plans to issue about 150,000 student visas annually in both 2027 and 2028.
Post-secondary institutions across Canada have been experiencing deep budget cuts due to reduced income from international student tuition fees, which tend to be four to five times higher than those paid by domestic students.
Studying in Canada had been a path to permanent residency, but on top of cutting student visas, the federal government also cut the programs where graduates are eligible for post-graduation work permits.
The federal budget says that after a period of rapid growth which is putting pressure on housing, health care and schools, “we are taking back control over the immigration system,” stating that new international student arrivals have declined by about 60 per cent since 2024.
Enrolment figures for this fall provided by both Cambrian College and Laurentian University show that trend playing out locally, with reduced international student enrolment, although Collège Boréal says its foreign student population is up.
“We have seen the federal budget, which reduces the number of spots across Canada for international students, but at this point, it's too early to see what this means for Cambrian,” Alison De Luisa, Cambrian’s vice-president, human resources, student services and international, told Sudbury.com in an interview this week.
A union official representing Cambrian faculty said last week that Canada’s brand has already been so damaged by the government’s actions to date, he’s not sure any schools will be able to fill even the reduced seat allotments proposed in the budget.
The drop in international students at Cambrian and, “frankly, everywhere” has been “pretty catastrophic,” said Neil Shyminsky, president of OPSEU Local 655, in an interview following the Nov. 5 Cambrian board of governors meeting.
Higher education consultant Alex Usher provided an interesting take on the budget in his blog, saying the foreign student visas actually issued were so low this year, colleges and universities would actually have to increase new enrolment to reach federal budget totals.
This year’s total of new visas is actually on target to be about 120,000, he said, less than the student visas the budget set out in coming years.
“Anyways, what this means is that — even on budget night — it was obvious that the new targets, far from smacking institutions over the head with new restrictions, actually leaves them room to increase their new intakes in 2026 by anything up to about 29 per cent,” said Usher.
Cambrian international students plummeting, looks to new markets
Cambrian, meanwhile, is still adjusting to its new reality, with another six programs suspended Nov. 5 due to international student enrolment trends.
That brings the total number of program suspensions to 16 since last spring, when the college projected its first deficit budget in many years.
In early 2024, Cambrian had 3,200 international students. That was down to 2,631 in the fall of 2024, and preliminary figures provided by Cambrian show they’re at around 1,430 this fall.
It also had a partnership with a private career college named Hanson Canada to provide international student programming in the GTA.
But with students at the Hanson campus no longer eligible for post-graduate work permits, this partnership has wrapped up, going from 6,200 students in early 2024 to just 84 students now getting their final credits.
On the bright side, Cambrian’s domestic students are up, standing at 3,840 this fall according to the preliminary figures, compared to 3,516 a year ago.
De Luisa said that was due to a lot of recruitment on Cambrian’s part, which now has about half of its domestic students coming from outside of Sudbury.
“So we are looking forward and really hoping that our domestic student numbers continue to increase at Cambrian,” she said.
As for what needs to be done about international student recruitment, that was a topic of discussion at the Nov. 5 meeting of Cambrian’s board.
Shawn Poland, Cambrian’s vice-president of external partnerships and strategic enrolment, said “Canada has lost some of its lustre as a brand of destination, and we need to recapture that.”
Referring to post-graduate work permit changes, the college has to “shift that dialogue, shift the positioning of Cambrian within that market, to say that you can come to Cambrian, get that education, but feel free to work abroad,” said Poland.
“It's not necessarily the same pathway to a PR (permanent residency) that it was historically.”
The college needs to “diversify” to attract international students that aren’t interested in obtaining permanent residency in Canada, said Cambrian president Kristine Morrissey.
“Typically, when we see students come from China, they actually have no interest in staying,” she said.
“Students from Brazil, Colombia, they have meaningful work back in their country. They're not looking for PR. But our Canadian education is meaningful, and it gives them a competitive advantage.”
‘Damage to brand Canada’: Laurentian international students also down
While held a few weeks before the federal budget came out, international student enrolment was also a topic of discussion at the Laurentian University board of governors meeting on Oct. 17.
According to preliminary first-day-of-class numbers (official enrolment is counted on Nov. 1), domestic enrolment at Laurentian is up 12 per cent and its international enrolment down 29 per cent.
As of the first day of class, overall full-time enrolments had actually increased two per cent year-over-year.
International student decreases at Laurentian are “a direct result from the reduction in both new and returning graduate level students (impact of the damage to brand Canada due to policy changes on the international student population and low study permit approval rates),” said a report presented to the board.
“The most international decline impact (is) from China, Bangladesh and Africa,” the report continued. “Despite policy changes we did have an increase in applicants from India, Haiti, Nepal and Saudi Arabia.”
Although overall enrolment is up, the decrease in international students, who pay higher tuition fees, is having an impact on the university’s finances.
“Because of the mix of the international and domestic students, it still means that we're projecting a slight decrease in the tuition revenue that we had predicted for the coming year,” Laurentian provost Malcolm Campbell told those at the meeting.
Sudbury.com has also received preliminary fall enrolment figures from Collège Boréal.
It seems the policy changes around international students have not had the same impact at the French-language college, with increases in both domestic and international enrolment.
A spokesperson for Boréal said this was due to initiatives such as the Francophone Minority Communities Student Pilot aimed at increasing French-speaking permanent residents outside of Quebec.
For all of its campuses across Ontario, domestic students numbered at 1,192 in 2024 and 1,660 at Boréal this year, while international students were at 1,105 last year and 1,260 this year. Following this article's publication, Boréal also provided us numbers for its Sudbury campus, saying it has 608 domestic students and 527 international students at its campus this fall.
“Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s Francophone Minority Communities Student Pilot (FMCSP) is designed to strengthen Francophone communities by welcoming French-speaking international students who, ultimately, will be able to serve our communities in both official languages," said Mélanie Doyon, Director, Boréal International, in a written statement provided to Sudbury.com following this article's initial publication.
"Through this two-year initiative, Boréal welcomed additional students, particularly from Francophone African countries, our main target population. Interest in studying in Canada from this group has remained strong despite recent IRCC announcements. Collège Boréal received numerous applications through targeted recruitment and communications efforts and was able to use nearly all of its provincial attestation letters (PAL).”
-With files from Canadian Press
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s assistant editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.