Canada data shows decrease in student arrivals this year

The figures show that there were 36,417 international student arrivals between January and June 2025, a decrease of 71 per cent compared with 125,025 in the first six months of 2024.

In a statement on the latest data, IRCC said that under the country’s 2025-2027 Immigration Levels Plan the government has committed to returning immigration to “sustainable levels”, including reducing Canada’s temporary population – comprised of international students and temporary workers – to less than five per cent.

At the beginning of 2024, the government of Canada introduced a cap on study permit applications for post-secondary study below master’s level.

Student arrivals in Canada, Dec 23-June 25. Source – Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

IRCC then further reduced the cap by 10 per cent for 2025 and included master’s and PhD study within the cap.

Other measures taken by IRCC include increased financial requirements for study permit applications and the end of the Student Direct Stream (SDS) of expedited applications in certain source markets.

IRCC said that as of June 30th, 2025, there were 546,562 people in Canada with a study permit, and a further 312,010 people who held both a study permit and a work permit.

The former represents a decrease of 19.6 per cent compared with 679,887 study permits holders in January 2024, while the latter was a 9.3 per cent decrease compared with 344,024 study and work permit holders in January 2024.

IRCC said that a fuller impact of the policy changes will emerge in subsequent data sets.

“While we have committed to reducing the number of arrivals, it will take time for the full effects to appear in the data. That’s because, inventories of existing applications continue to be processed under the rules that were in place when they were submitted. As a result, more significant effects of the new measures will only start to appear a few months after they begin,” it said.

As well as the caps on Provincial Attestation Letters (PALs) for study permits, international education stakeholders have flagged decreasing approval rates as a factor in lower student arrivals.

In analysis of 2024 data, Canada-headquartered international education platform ApplyBoard said that the approval rate in 2024 dropped to 48 per cent, and that in the first four months of this year the approval rate dropped even further.

In 76 per cent of refusals in 2024, visa officers said that they were unconvinced that applicants would leave Canada after their studies, ApplyBoard said, while financial reasons were also commonly cited, including insufficient funds for tuition and insufficient funds for living expenses.

Refusals based on concern over document authenticity represented a small proportion, the organization said, affecting around 13,000 students in 2024.