Saskatchewan used to be an education destination for international students. But the province’s two universities are seeing a significant drop in those enrolments — enough to start having a financial impact.
According to the University of Regina’s winter count, the university had 4,457 international students, making for a little less than a third of the university’s total student population. International students at the University of Saskatchewan, on the other hand, made up for 14 per cent of the total student population in 2023-24.
Both the universities have reported a drop in enrolments this winter intake.
The U of R says the number of newly admitted international students “has declined significantly” by more than 50 per cent this winter term compared to January 2024.
“This reduction means the number of incoming international students is not keeping pace with the number of continuing students who will soon finish their programs,” U of R spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
U of R declined an interview to talk about the impact of the decrease.
14 per cent fewer international students made their way to the U of R in three fiscal years ago because of pandemic-related travel restrictions, according to the university’s annual report.
The report says the drop in foreign students and a lesser decline in domestic student enrolment of four per cent “adversely” affected the institution’s revenue-generating capacity that year.
U of S officials say they’ve not finalized their count yet, but preliminary numbers suggest a 20 per cent decrease. Jerome Cranston, vice-provost of students and learning at U of S, says the loss is more than just financial.
“What international students actually bring to the University of Saskatchewan, they bring potentially to the province if they decide to stay. That’s something that we definitely are feeling a loss,” he said.
Financial hit from tuition loss
Statistics Canada data for Saskatchewan shows that in the current academic year, international undergraduates paid an average of $31,540 in tuition, while domestic students paid $9,609.
International undergraduate students in Saskatchewan universities have also seen a 53 per cent jump in the cost of their tuition in the past five years. That increase was 16 per cent for Canadian undergraduate students, according to the statistics agency.
Cranston says the U of S is not immune to the financial hit, but that they also haven’t completely relied on international students to balance their budgets.
“We are taking a look at our expenditures…. We, unlike other post secondary institutions, are not contemplating layoffs, we are not contemplating not filling positions.”
Cranston says they’re also seeing some of that lost money come in with an uptick in domestic student enrolments.
Saskatchewan universities, by StatCan measures, however, would have to enrol more than three domestic students for every international student they lose to gain the same financial outcomes.
The province is responsible for finances of post-secondary institutions. Minister of Advanced Education Ken Cheveldayoff, in an emailed response, said they are encouraging institutions to think “strategically and innovatively about how to attract international students.”
“Recruiting international students continues to be a priority for Saskatchewan and we are working closely with our post-secondary institutions to promote Saskatchewan internationally as a preferred destination to study, work and live,” Cheveldayoff said in an emailed response.
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The federal government, over the last year, implemented a series of policies aimed at reducing overall temporary resident numbers.
Those measures included doubling the amount that students need to have in the bank before moving to Canada to $20,000, issuing work visas to graduates from public colleges only if they have studied in fields related to occupations with labour shortages and implementing a student cap.
Federal policies deter students
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) initially allocated 12,000 spots to Saskatchewan as part of its federal cap. That number was stretched to 15,054 after taking into account the province’s historical acceptance rate.
Then-minister of Advanced Education Gordon Wyant, while speaking about the increase in April, appreciated the IRCC for increasing the allocation for Saskatchewan, as international students “play a key role in maintaining economic growth and are a critical component to helping meet our labour market needs.”
Despite the increase in Saskatchewan’s available spots, Cranston says students are just not applying anymore. He says the series of federal government directives have been detrimental to how prospective international students look at Canada as an avenue of education.
“The fact that fewer international students are applying, I think, is the fact that the damage to the reputation of Canada has taken a hit on the world stage,” he said.
Cranston says a province-specific nuanced approach would have fared better for Saskatchewan.
“I think they took a very blunt approach to applying the same policy across the country without looking at the differences that Saskatchewan has in terms of population, housing, affordability,” he said.
IRCC, in an emailed response, said annual growth in the number of international students couldn’t be sustained while ensuring students receive the support they need.
Harder life in Canada
Rudraksh Mehta, an undergraduate student at the U of R from India, says he’s been advising his friends against continuing education because of the rising cost of living.
“That had a big turnoff for them in terms of coming to Canada, leaving the life behind which we were living in India, which was not this hard and not just in terms of being hard, but it was way better than whatever we are having right now,” he said.
Sabrina Urmi, an international student from Bangladesh, is enrolled in a two-year business administration diploma program at the U of R. She says she’s not been getting any work.
“I’m here in Canada and I’m not earning a single penny, it’s really kind of shameful for me.”
Looking at job opportunities, Urmi says she’s also not hopeful of landing a job even after she graduates because of the mismatch in the job market.
IRCC numbers say business-related programs accounted for 27 per cent of all study permits approved from 2018 to 2023, more than any other field.
Over that same time period, just six per cent of all permits went to foreign students for health sciences, medicine or biological and biomedical sciences programs, while trades and vocational training programs accounted for 1.25 per cent.
The industries with the highest job vacancy rates and the largest absolute numbers of job vacancies have been generally consistent since 2018, both before and after the COVID-19 pandemic began: construction, health care and accommodation and food services, according to Statistics Canada data.
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“One of my cousins is planning to go abroad for a masters, but he surely has one thing in mind, that he won’t be choosing Canada anymore because of the population and the fewer opportunities,” Nain Jani, another international student at the U of R, said.
“They’re constantly changing government policies and everything that a student cannot rely on.”
Het Bhavsar says anti-Indian commentary online is starting to translate to real on-ground consequences.
“People are being so racist nowadays. When I’m on a bus going to [my] job, random people would shout at me that ‘go out of our country, this is our country, you are invading us.'”