Canadian province stops admission of international students for two years

Canada’s province of British Columbia says it is halting the admission of foreign students by new tertiary institutions for two years.

CBC reports that Selina Robinson, the post-secondary education minister, said the decision is necessary to correct faults in an international education system which she said “has not been working as well as it should”.

She said the ban implies that post-secondary institutions will not be able to apply to enrol international students for the next two years.

The minister said this would allow the province to root out “exploitive practices” plaguing the system.

Robinson said the province began probing the system in 2023 and found cases of “poor-quality education” and “lack of instructors”.

She said affected students have become “less likely to complain” for fear that doing so would put their visas at risk.

“We’re going to be developing a system where we’ll be on-site and doing a more proactive evaluation of programs,” the minister said.

Marc Miller, the Canadian immigration minister, had earlier announced a two-year cap on study permits.

He said Canada would reduce its approval of undergraduate study permits by 35 percent, with each province to be allotted a quota.

Miller stated that the move was among the principal measures to improve programme integrity and maintain sustainability.

Robinson, commenting on this, said the freeze on admittance in British Columbia will give the province some time to assess the impact of the federal cap on study permits.