When the government sensed apparent pressure on the healthcare, housing, employment and other services across
the country they introduced a temporary cap on the intake of college students, according to the
minister of immigration Marc Miller.

The International students cap is going to curtail down students admission by 35%.

This news did create a lot of frustration and tensions among students and colleges. Students and
parents scrambled to find other options than Canada but still many can be seen to be very keen to study
in Canada. The master program is the favourite of most of the students and since it doesn’t come under
the Provincial Attestation Letter rules, therefore they have nothing to worry.

As per IRCC data 209,930 were studying at College level, 80,270 at university, 10,865 at secondary level
and 8,085 at primary.
The interest in undergraduate courses in dwindling as compared to interest expressed for postgraduate
courses.
The cost of living has increased drastically and it effects more for international

students coming from the Indian
subcontinent. The cost of living requirement has also increased from CAD $10,000 to $20,635 and the
announced restrictions on public-private partnership institutions has put students into deep trouble.

A lot of rethinking and planning is going on at the student’s end.
The big trouble started when the cap system was introduced, on top of it came the restrictions on the
public private partnership college students of not being eligible for issue of work permits. All these
combined are posing big trouble for students from India.
After the introduction of the student visa cap it will be much more difficult for students to get
admission in prestigious universities and colleges in Canada. The only option that will be left for
qualifying students would be colleges in lesser known or far away places.
Students would also need an provincial attestation letter from the province they plan to study in –the
IRCC will then allocate a portion of the cap to each province and territory, the province will further
distribute the allocation between their designated colleges. Provinces with more allocation will draw in
more students, this seems to be the result of a seemingly purposeful strategy to ease pressure off from
larger and more famous provinces like British Columbia and Ontario. The huge influx of international
students in these two provinces has already caused immense pressure on the infrastructure and has
created huge unemployment.
Atul Kumar from Jaipur, India, shared that he planned to do a Computer Science course from a famous college
in Toronto but once he came to know the complexities of the procedure that he has to go through, he
then cancelled the idea of going to Canada and has started to search other countries such as Australia
and America as better alternatives. He added, “I will have to arrange a loan for my education which will
not be an easy task for me and on top of that I don’t want to undergo any more hardships for getting
admission for my studies, that’s why I have totally cancelled the idea of going to Canada. My Canadian dream is shattered”.

The Private Colleges are unhappy:
The student cap puts a lid on the revenue of private colleges. Many private colleges offer
programs under the license and affiliation from the public colleges but now the drastic government decision to not allow work permits for graduates from these colleges has shocked everyone. The colleges consider this as a direct
attack on their revenue stream.

Elizabeth Buckner, a professor who specializes in international higher education at the
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, said the government’s decision to act seems
closely related to the moment when rising study permit numbers were connected to
housing issues in public discussions.
“It’s the ramping up of concerns over housing that’s probably driving this,” Dr. Buckner added.

War of words grows between feds and provinces:

Immigration Minister Marc Miller said his government gave provinces enough time take notice that international student numbers would be capped, he gave them ample opportunity to set their systems in order and any suggestion otherwise is “complete garbage.”

This after Ontario’s College and Universities Minister Jill Dunlop told the London Free Press Monday she was “very disappointed” with what she said was the federal government’s “unilateral decision, without any consultation” to limit international students.

“That’s complete garbage,” he said. “We said quite clearly they need to get their houses in order. We spoke specifically about Ontario that has the largest number of international students. They should have known it. They’ve had auditor general reports. We’ve spoken quite publicly about it.”

Miller said his government invited provincial counterparts to meetings that they did not attend.

“It’s beneath me to share text messages with journalists, but the reality is that there was communication that just was never followed up on,” he told reporters.