Canada Study Permits Boom To Over 550,000 As International Students Flock To Colleges and Universities
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Loading... - Antar Bennani
- 20 Mar 2023
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International students are heading for Canadian colleges and universities in record numbers with the 551,405 study permits issued last year representing a 24.1 per cent increase over the number issued the previous year.
Most startling is that last year’s surge in study permits in Canada came on the heels of another record year.
In 2021, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) had issued 444,260 study permits, then a record number, and 73.7 per cent more than in 2020.
In the seven years since 2015, the number of study permits handed to international students coming to Canadian colleges and universities has grown by 151.7 per cent, from 219,035 such permits.
In the years since then, Canada has become an increasingly-popular destination for international students and more study permits have been issued almost every year with the notable exception of the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2016, there were 264,285 study permits, an increase of 20.7 per cent over the previous year. Then, in 2017, Canada issued 19.2 per cent, or 50,710, more study permits to hit 314,995.
In 2018, the number of study permits grew somewhat more slowly, by 12.5 per cent, to hit 354,290 and that performance was repeated in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic, as Ottawa issued 13.1 per cent, or 46,370, more study permits for a total of 400,660.
As public health and travel restrictions kicked in during the pandemic, overall immigration to Canada plummeted and so, too, did the number of study permits issued. Read More…
