Fall in foreign students hurts universities
The decline in foreign students – presumably due to the higher tuition imposed on them, but this isn’t mentioned in the piece – is hurting Quebec universities, the francophone ones being worst afflicted, which is not what was expected.
Leopards? Eat our faces?
H. John 11:25 on 2025-10-14 Permalink
Rather than tuition, I think provincial and federal changes in immigration policy had a greater effect – especially for French universities.
The article explains:
“L’attractivité de ces universités diminue en raison des quotas d’étudiants étrangers, du gel du Programme de l’expérience québécoise (PEQ), du manque de prévisibilité et de la complexité croissante des démarches d’admission.”
Québec has introduced a cap on the number of new international student application files (Certificat d’acceptation du Québec) that the government will accept.
The total cap is 124,760 CAQs for post-secondary study in 2025-26, down from about 156,647 in 2024. Within that cap, allocations for particular sectors (colleges, vocational training, etc.) have been reduced significantly.
The federal government has also reduced the number of study permits issued, as part of efforts to manage immigration pressure.
Kate 11:32 on 2025-10-14 Permalink
Thank you, H. John. It would have improved that article if they’d devoted a little more time to the reasons for the decline, as you have done here.