Conestoga admissions throttled
New foreign students will be limited to about one-third of college’s total enrolment
Conestoga College and colleges with public-private college partnerships will undergo the largest decline of international enrolment in 2024, the province announced on Wednesday.
International students will be limited to about one-third of Conestoga’s enrolment, outside of high-demand areas where a greater percentage of foreign students will be permitted to enrol.
Priority will go to programs in high-demand areas such as skilled trades, health human resources, STEM, hospitality and child care.
No institution in Ontario can exceed its 2023 international student levels, and the number of new international permits cannot exceed 55 per cent of the institution’s 2023 first-year domestic enrolment, except in priority programs.
Meanwhile, Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo will maintain international enrolment numbers from 2023, according to a release from the Ministry of Colleges and Universities on Wednesday afternoon.
A total of 22 universities in the province will be allowed to maintain their 2023 numbers; only Algoma University in Sault Ste. Marie is expected to see a decline.
Eleven of the 24 colleges will be able to have as many new international students as they did in 2023. However, the provincial announcement specifically says that Conestoga, and colleges with public-private college partnerships, will see the largest declines.
“We are protecting the integrity of our province’s post-secondary education system by attracting the best and brightest international students to Ontario to study in areas that are critical to our economy,” Minister of Colleges and Universities Jill Dunlop said in the release.
“We have been working with post-secondary institutions to ensure international students are enrolled in the programs to support a pipeline of graduates for in-demand jobs.”
The province is implementing a 50 per cent cut on international enrolment in Ontario, imposed by federal Immigration Minister
Marc Miller who said Ontario must take the biggest slice of the national cut of 35 per cent.
The province will allocate 96 per cent of permit applications to publicly funded colleges and universities, with the remaining four per cent for Ontario’s language schools, private universities and other institutions.
Career college will not receive any applications, the province said.
Conestoga led all institutions in the country with more than 30,000 new international study permits in 2023, which helped the college post a $106-million surplus in 2022/23.
Now, two factors will influence the total number of new international students Conestoga can enrol in 2024 and 2025: international students in regular programs cannot exceed 55 per cent of its projected first-year domestic enrolment. It will also be able to enrol more international students in priority programs, but the province has not yet specified what that number might be.
For example, if 1,000 domestic students enrol, the college can add 550 international students for a total enrolment of 1,550, which works out to 64.5 per cent domestic and 35.5 per cent international.
A conservative estimate where the college has a domestic firstyear class of 10,000 students would mean that Conestoga can only accept 5,500 new international students in 2024, plus the variance for the priority areas. This would result in the loss of international tuition fees worth tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars compared to 2023.
Conestoga did not respond to questions on the precise impact of the province's decision. The Ontario government also did not explain how it determined that Conestoga would have the largest decline.