Selkirk College is reviewing potential programming cuts after the federal government announced it would further reduce the number of international students allowed to study in Canada.
Federal immigration minister Marc Miller said last month Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada will reduce annual study permits accepted nationwide by 10 per cent to a total of 437,000 starting in 2025. That follows a 35 per cent reduction in permits, which began this year.
The new rules will also now apply to masters and doctoral students, who will be allocated 12 per cent of total spaces, and limit international students to just 24 hours of off-campus work.
Selkirk president Maggie Matear said she was disappointed by the announcement, which she believes will have a negative impact on colleges.
“Any reduction in international students not only reduces the diversity of the student body that we have, which is really important to getting a good, well-rounded education, but it also has impacts on the community, because many of these newcomers end up deciding to stay here when they're done," she said.
"We know that in an area that doesn't grow very quickly, that's an important potential source of growth for smaller communities.”
Selkirk had 762 full-time international students enroled in 2023. For this year, the college was allocated 857 attestation letters that are required for students to show they've been included within the enrolment cap. But the letters don't guarantee a student will enrol in the college, only that they've been made an offer.
The college doesn't yet have its latest enrolment numbers. Matear said Selkirk received an influx of applications prior to the new rules going into effect, and the cap did not apply to current students.
The concern, however, is for 2025 when those students graduate and Selkirk can't replace every vacant classroom seat with a new arrival. Matear said the college has already noted a drop in applications for the coming winter and spring semesters.
She also acknowledged the loss of international student revenue will impact the college's budget, but declined to say if any programs might be cut. Those decisions, she added, will likely be made by the end of the year once the college receives more information on how many students can be accepted.
“It's something that we're reviewing right now, because there may be different models of offering some of the programs that we offer now. We just don't know what it's going to look like. We do know that we're facing some significant budget cuts, though, and how we address those is still under consideration.”
Minister Miller has argued the cuts to international student study permits are a necessary response to some institutions demanding high tuition in return for poor education. In his Sept. 18 announcement, Miller said the latest limits are meant to address rising unemployment among youth and immigrants.
That includes new rules to post-graduation work permits. Although university graduates will be eligible for apply for work permits of up to three years, college graduates are only eligible for the same permit if their field of study is linked to a national labour market shortage such as in health care.
Matear said the national shortages aren't necessarily the same as those in the West Kootenay. Selkirk, for example, offers programs in early childhood education, hospitality, business and culinary arts. The local economy has need of trained workers in those roles, but they would now be denied work permits by the federal government once they've left Selkirk.
“It really limits the potential for newcomers who come to college to to actually find a pathway to permanent residency here afterwards.”
