B.C. implementing changes to caps on international students
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Posted March 1, 2024 5:49 pm.
B.C. is implementing new requirements from the federal department of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) over how many study permits will be issued to international students.
Students will now require provincial letters of attestation as proof they are accounted for, says B.C.’s Minister of Post-Secondary Education Lisa Beare, with 53 per cent of them allocated to post-secondary institutions.
“The decision was made within my ministry, by me, to protect our public post-secondary institutions,” Beare said.
“We have such a strong public post-secondary system here in British Columbia. And you know, our public post-secondaries attract really, really high quality applications into their programmes.”
Beare says the province has a limit of 83,000 applications this year, and the feds expect this to result in around 50,000 approved permits. By comparison, there were 97,000 applications and 60,000 approvals in 2023.
She says the changes don’t impact people who are already in Canada with a valid study permit, primary and secondary school students, or students working toward their master’s or doctoral degrees. As well, exemptions will be granted to anyone whose application was received before 11:30 a.m. PST on Jan. 22, which was the day the IRCC announced the new requirements.
The province says it is also taking several other actions to eliminate the exploitation of international students, including requiring schools to post tuition levels to ensure students know the entire cost of their education before they start. As well, it is pausing approvals for institutions seeking to enrol international students until February 2026.
The attestation letter system will come into effect Mar. 4.
With files from Cole Schisler.