The federal government has announced new measures to limit and curb the abuse of Canada's international student program.
Starting on Sept. 1, Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced Monday, the federal government will stop issuing postgraduate work permits to international students who graduate from programs provided under so-called Public College-Private Partnerships.
Furthermore, for most of the international students who are not studying in graduate schools or in a professional program such as medicine or law, their spouses will no longer receive a work permit to work in Canada.
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The measures come in addition to the confirmation that Canada will implement a two-year cap on international study permits, news first reported by the Star on Friday, with an aim of reducing the number issued by 35 per cent from 2023's level, to 364,000.
Each province will be assigned a fixed number of study permits that's proportional to its population, and have to decide how it divvies them up among the schools authorized to take in international students.
Ontario and British Columbia, the two provinces that have the largest number of international students by far, will be most affected by those rules.
A Star investigation found the growth of international student enrolment in recent years is primarily at public colleges because they offer shorter programs and cost less than universities but, unlike private colleges, still provide access to coveted postgraduate work permits.
At some Ontario public colleges, there are more international students than domestic students through so-called Public College-Private Partnerships authorized by the province, where taxpayer-funded colleges provide curriculum at a fee to their private career college partners, which hire their own instructors to deliver the academic programs.
Starting on Sept. 1, Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced Monday, the federal government will stop issuing postgraduate work permits to international students who graduate from programs provided under so-called Public College-Private Partnerships.
Furthermore, for most of the international students who are not studying in graduate schools or in a professional program such as medicine or law, their spouses will no longer receive a work permit to work in Canada.
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
The measures come in addition to the confirmation that Canada will implement a two-year cap on international study permits, news first reported by the Star on Friday, with an aim of reducing the number issued by 35 per cent from 2023's level, to 364,000.
Each province will be assigned a fixed number of study permits that's proportional to its population, and have to decide how it divvies them up among the schools authorized to take in international students.
Ontario and British Columbia, the two provinces that have the largest number of international students by far, will be most affected by those rules.
A Star investigation found the growth of international student enrolment in recent years is primarily at public colleges because they offer shorter programs and cost less than universities but, unlike private colleges, still provide access to coveted postgraduate work permits.
At some Ontario public colleges, there are more international students than domestic students through so-called Public College-Private Partnerships authorized by the province, where taxpayer-funded colleges provide curriculum at a fee to their private career college partners, which hire their own instructors to deliver the academic programs.