International education policy in Canada: 2025 in review and the road to 2026
As 2025 comes to a close, Canada’s international education sector looks fundamentally different than it did just two years ago. What began in 2024 as a corrective intervention hardened this year into a sustained period of contraction, with significant consequences for institutions, communities, students, and Canada’s global positioning. A review of 2025 shows a sector reshaped by policy restraint and a narrowing of how international education is understood within national policy.
The defining story of 2025 was scale reduction. Although IRCC set a study permit target of 437,000, approvals fell well short. Federal messaging framed this as success, pointing to roughly 60% fewer new international student arrivals between January and September 2025 compared to 2024, or about 150,000 fewer students, as evidence of responsiveness and population control.
Stronger controls and oversight were needed, but the narrative shift has been troubling. Recognition of international students’ economic, research, and diplomatic value has largely disappeared, replaced by a framing focused on reduction. This retreat from education diplomacy carries real risks. Reputational damage is slow to undo. As the Dutch saying goes, trust arrives on foot and leaves on horseback. For a fuller account of how Canada arrived at this point, see my earlier analysis in The PIE.
Policy changes and differentiated institutional impacts in 2025
The most consequential shifts of 2025 extended well beyond enrolment caps. Changes to the Post Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) program, introduced alongside broader study permit restrictions in 2024, reshaped the international education landscape unevenly across institution types. Field of study eligibility requirements were fully operational throughout 2025, with additional layers added, including new language testing expectations and higher financial thresholds.
Together, these changes altered student decision making and forced institutions to reassess recruitment strategies, program viability, and long-term planning. While some exclusions were adjusted following sector feedback, the overall policy direction remained intact.
Research intensive universities, particularly those with strong graduate and research portfolios, were better positioned to adapt. Colleges, institutes, and smaller regional institutions faced sharper impacts, especially where programs had long functioned as pathways into regional labour markets and community-based employment.
A recent Maclean’s article profiling Selkirk College in rural British Columbia illustrated how these policy shifts translated into real world impacts in communities of all sizes, noting that the college and its students support about one in 12 jobs in their region.
As president Maggie Matear outlined, the institution absorbed a significant budget shortfall, experienced a sharp decline in international enrolment, and was forced to close community education centres and its Nelson arts campus while reducing staff, with 40 layoffs last year and another round noted for the next fiscal year.
Selkirk’s experience reflects a broader pattern we have seen and will likely continue to see across Canada. Similar dynamics were tracked across multiple regions, particularly in rural and smaller urban communities where international students had become embedded in local economies.
More broadly, this points to a much larger and unresolved conversation at institutional, provincial, and federal levels about the sustainability of postsecondary funding models and how public systems will be financed and structured going forward.
The question is whether the country can now shift from reactive management to deliberate, integrated strategy
The latter part of 2025 has been marked by emerging signals of stabilisation, including recent confirmations from the IRCC that for 2026, the field of study requirements tied to the PGWP are to remain stable, with no additions or removals. For institutions and students alike, this pause on this aspect of policy change is both necessary and welcome.
After several years of volatility, a more predictable framework offers space for recalibration, more deliberate planning, and a renewed focus on quality, student outcomes, and long-term sustainability across Canada’s diverse postsecondary system.
Strategic silence on soft power
One of the most striking features of 2025 was not only the scale of policy change, but the absence of a broader strategic narrative to accompany it. Throughout the year, international education was rarely discussed as an asset connected to Canada’s foreign policy, trade objectives, or global influence.
Concepts such as soft power, education diplomacy, and the long-term value of alumni networks were largely missing from federal discourse. This absence stands in clear contrast to other jurisdictions that are looking to integrate international education into economic, diplomatic, and geopolitical strategy and the current approach is a missed opportunity. This narrowing of focus occurred at a time of increasing geopolitical complexity.
In a multipolar world, international education networks play a critical role in sustaining trade ties, advancing research partnerships, and supporting long term policy alignment. In 2025, that strategic dimension was largely sidelined.
The December 2025 announcement of the $1.7 billion Canada Global Impact+ Research Talent Initiative offered a partial counterbalance. The investment underscored the importance of attracting top international researchers in areas such as artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and clean energy. However, this emphasis on elite research talent did not translate into a broader vision for international education as a system. Undergraduate and college students, who also contribute to long term global relationships and workforce capacity, remained largely outside strategic consideration.
Setting the stage for 2026
One of the most consequential developments of 2025 may not fully materialise until next year. In July, the Auditor General announced a performance audit of the International Student Program (ISP), expected to be tabled in parliament in 2026. The review is anticipated to examine study permit caps, pathways to permanent residence, educational quality, asylum claims, and program integrity. If the audit focuses only on failures and past excesses, it will miss a critical opportunity. A meaningful review must also examine the broader performance of Canada’s immigration system as a whole.
Throughout 2025, concerns about service standards, processing timelines, communication gaps, and operational responsiveness were raised consistently across the sector. These issues featured prominently in parliamentary committee hearings, sector consultations, and public testimony throughout the fall. What emerged from those discussions was not a call to return to unchecked growth, but a clear demand for a more functional, predictable, and transparent system.
Institutions, employers, and students emphasised the need for clearly articulated service standards, consistent and timely decision making, improved communication when policies shift, and stronger accountability for implementation. Repeated mid cycle adjustments, coupled with opaque operational guidance, created uncertainty that undermined confidence even where policy objectives were broadly understood.
Importantly, the CIMM hearings also surfaced constructive proposals. These included better data sharing with provinces and institutions, greater regional differentiation rather than uniform national measures, increased investment in frontline processing capacity, and clearer feedback loops between policy design and operational realities. Together, these suggestions point to the need for modernisation not only in policy direction, but in execution.
As Canada moves into 2026, the question is whether the country can now shift from reactive management to deliberate, integrated strategy. That shift must include a more functional and responsive immigration system, clearer alignment across education, labour market, and foreign policy goals, and renewed recognition of international education as a strategic asset.
International education remains one of Canada’s most powerful tools for global engagement, economic resilience, and diplomatic influence. Whether that potential is rebuilt through thoughtful recalibration or allowed to erode through continued fragmentation will define the next chapter for the sector and for Canada’s place in the world.
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