Canada urges universities to diversify international student intake after 20,000 from its largest source, India, go missing

"Universities and colleges need to put a little more effort into the price of acquisition and invest more in the talent that you're bringing here, and that includes going to more countries and expanding your resources," said Marc Miller, Canada's Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, in a media briefing last week.

"I would say universities and colleges have been going to one or two source countries and constantly going back to the well on that, and we expect the diversity of students," he added, as reported by Immigration.ca, Canada's longest-standing online immigration platform.

While acknowledging India's significant contribution to the international student population, Miller emphasized the need for universities to adopt a broader recruitment strategy.

"That doesn't mean that Indian students aren't some of the best and brightest," he noted, adding that India's large population naturally results in a high number of students choosing Canada for their studies.

Miller also clarified that Canada would not adopt the same approach as the U.S. administration under President Donald Trump regarding undocumented immigrants, Mint reported.

However, he stressed that students without legal status, including those with expiring post-graduate work permits (PGWPs), must leave the country.

"If you are here in an irregular fashion and don't have a right to stay, you need to leave or you will be removed," he stated.

According to a Globe and Mail report in January, nearly 50,000 international students failed to register at their designated institutions after arriving in Canada during March and April last year. The majority of these students were Indian nationals, said the report based on data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

The report indicated that these non-enrolled students accounted for 6.9% of the 717,539 international students being monitored at that time. Meanwhile, 89.8% (644,349 students) were confirmed as enrolled, while the enrollment status of 23,514 students remained unrecorded.

Among those not enrolled, Indian students represented the largest group with 19,582 cases, followed by 4,279 Chinese students, 3,902 Nigerian students, and 2,712 Ghanaian students.

While some of these students are believed to be working low-paying jobs to sustain themselves, others have reportedly fallen victim to fraudulent educational institutions.

Government data from the first half of 2024 showed that Indian students accounted for 49% of all international students in Canada, followed by Chinese students at 12%.

Between 2010 and 2019, the number of international students in Canada more than doubled, surpassing 640,000. After the pandemic, the figure exceeded one million as Canada actively sought to attract foreign talent.

However, rising pressure on housing, healthcare, and public services has prompted the government to tighten immigration policies. In January 2024, Canada introduced new measures, including caps on study permits and restrictions on PGWPs.

For 2024, the country plans to issue 437,000 study permits, a 10% decrease from the previous year.