Selkirk College may be forced to reevaluate its programming as a result of the federal government’s changes to the international study permit system.
In September, the federal government announced an additional 10 per cent reduction in the number of international study permits accepted across the country for 2025.
This reduction follows a previous 35 per cent decrease implemented this year, meaning that in 2025, there will be just 437,000 study permits issued countrywide.
According to the Federal Ministry of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, these efforts aim to address housing and affordability concerns in the country. However, Selkirk College President Maggie Matear fears they may create some unintended consequences.
“It’s a little bit disappointing to us because two years ago, the approach was that we welcome students and that we don’t just want them to study here; we want them to stay here. So, this is quite a turnaround from that statement a couple of years ago, and I think this is going to have some unintended consequences on communities, especially in the rural and northern parts of the country.”
Selkirk issued just 268 of its 857 international student attestation letters for 2024. In total, the school currently has 750 international students enrolled. At its peak in 2019, there were 1,024.
Matear says there has been an obvious reduction in applications since the federal cap came into effect, but she believes this could also be impacted by Canada’s reputation internationally due to these changes.
“Part of it is not necessarily the caps; it’s that there’s been a chill overseas on the idea of coming to Canada. We’re not being seen as the welcoming, open-door place that we were before. So even though there is a cap of 35 per cent less, we’re not going to come near that because students are choosing to apply to other jurisdictions that may not be experiencing some of the uncertainties that Canada is right now.”
In terms of programming moving forward, Matear says they’re trying to be as transparent as possible but that they’re waiting for things to stabilize before making any decisions.
“We know that any decisions we make along these lines have to be really carefully considered to ensure that we’re still meeting our mission, vision, and commitments to the community and the students, but we don’t know what that looks like yet.”
She says they’re hoping to have more details on the impacts and a game plan moving forward by the end of the year.
“International students make such a big difference to the diversity in our classrooms and the ability to expose domestic students to different ideas and cultures. It also has a huge impact on our community when we don’t have newcomers coming to support regional needs. So it’s disappointing to us to hear that we are being painted with the same brush as a few bad actors in some of the cities.”
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