Quebec caps international students but is hazy on numbers

Quebec is taking steps to reduce the number of international students in the province, but can’t say by how many.

On Wednesday, the government announced it will issue 20 per cent fewer acceptance certificates to foreign students this year compared to last year. The move is part of Quebec’s plan to limit the number of non-permanent residents in the province, which it pegs around 615,000 people.

“The goal is to slow the growth,” Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry told reporters in Quebec City. “There has been substantial growth … of foreign students in recent years.”

The government says there were 120,000 international students in Quebec in 2023, up from 50,000 nearly a decade earlier.

This year, Quebec will issue a maximum of 124,760 acceptance certificates to foreign students, down from 156,647 in 2024.

The measure primarily targets private colleges that the government has said are using education as a business model to sell citizenship. Quebec will issue a maximum of about 32,000 certificates for professional training programs, down from 44,600. At the college level, the number will drop to 29,200 from nearly 49,000.

The numbers for universities and pre-university college programs will be capped at 2024 levels.

However, not everyone who receives an acceptance certificate ends up enrolling, and Déry was unable to say how the number of foreign students in Quebec will change as a result of the new limit.

“Will it eventually lead to a drop in enrolment?” she said. “We still have to wait.”

The new numbers are in place for one year, while the government comes up with a multi-year plan, Déry said.

The measure follows a new law Quebec passed in December, which gave the government broad discretion to cap international students. An order in council published Wednesday sets out individual limits for each post-secondary school in the province.

Public colleges and universities had asked to be excluded from the bill, arguing that international students make crucial contributions to Quebec. “At this point, we can only express our dismay at the fact that the government insists on maintaining this course, despite the current geopolitical context,” said McGill University in a statement Wednesday. “Rather than welcoming exceptional talent from abroad looking to study in Quebec, we’re closing our doors.”

A spokesperson for Concordia University said the school doesn’t expect to be affected by the new ceiling, as international student enrolment has declined in recent years. But Concordia is worried about the “negative message” the Quebec government is sending to international students, the spokesperson said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 26, 2025.

By Thomas Laberge

With files from Maura Forrest in Montreal