In January, Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced plans to limit the number of international students to 360,000, but revised figures now stand at 292,000 due to cap exemptions. Leaders of French and English language programmes in Canada express concerns that this cap will hinder diversity goals in higher education.
However, there is something to notice, as experts say that the allocation cap is on applications and not on study permits. In such cases, even if diversity is demanded, the institutions are going to choose students from countries with good conversion rates. This instance will surely affect diversity.
According to the federal government, the study permit will only be processed if it has a provincial attestation letter. In total, the federal government will issue 605,000 PALs to post-secondary institutions across the country. Perhaps, out of it, an estimate of 60%–360,000 applicants will accept the offer, and study permits will be allocated accordingly.
As per the former president of Languages Canada, Cath D’Amico, institutions have a rubric drawn to determine which students are most likely to accept their offer. The schools will certainly recruit students from countries that previously had a better visa approval rate.
There will be a lot more emphasis on the institutions to make sure that provincial attestation letters are used appropriately. Moreover, they should be going to get some rate of conversion on that. Not only does this threaten student diversity, but it could also result in the final number of international students being higher than the revised 292,000 government target.
The experts hold the view that balancing diversity and visa approval rates is not going to be easy. Only by leveraging the value of language learning for academic success will the higher education sector continue to benefit from a diverse student body.
