Brandon’s Assiniboine College shuts down 5 programs, records 78% drop in international applications

December 18, 2024 Canuck

The number of applications from international students has dropped about 78 per cent at Assiniboine College in Brandon because of the federal cap on study permits, forcing the cancellation of some programs, the school’s international program manager says.

“For winter and spring 2025 terms, we’ve already had to cancel or reduce intakes in courses such as office skills, baking foundations, culinary arts, business administration, accounting and finance programs,” said Sandeep Rane.

It’s among several colleges in Manitoba dealing with a drop in international student enrolments because of the federal government’s cap on undergraduate permits.

Rane said Assiniboine has had close to 1,000 international student applications a year until now, and the big drop has forced them to close down five of their programs.

It’s also resulted in fewer seats for domestic students, because these programs are delivered without funds from government and having strong international enrolment allows for new seats for domestic students, he said.

When there is a deficit in domestic enrolment, international students come in and support the program, he said.

A group of five people walk down the path. — International students fill holes in the labour market, Sandeep Rane says. (Prabhjot Singh Lotey/CBC)

In September, Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced he will lower the study permit cap by another 10 per cent. Canada plans a limit of 437,000 study permits in 2025 and 2026. In 2024, the target was 485,000 permits.

Those changes followed significant scrutiny of the international student program as experts warned that strong population growth was putting pressure on an already strained housing market.

Rane says when international students are moving to provinces like Manitoba, they are contributing to their economies and labour market.

“Businesses within our communities are also going to get impacted, because international students also bring a large source of human resource, especially in rural Manitoba.”

Rane says the Manitoba labour market outlook (2022-26) highlights a reported labour market shortage in retail, food services and office workers.

“Our mandate is to prepare students with skills that are required in our labour markets, so these program suspensions, coupled with our inability to supply the industry with skilled graduates, further limit opportunities for local businesses to succeed and grow within the province.”

He says 92 per cent of graduates from Assiniboine College are gainfully employed within nine months of graduation, and 96 per cent stay in Manitoba and contribute to the province.

No international students at Herzing

Robin Day, national director of academics at Herzing College, said private colleges like Herzing have not received any spots for study permits under the new rules.

As of Dec. 11, Herzing had five international students enrolled in Winnipeg, all of whom enrolled before the new announcement, and they won’t be getting more, Day said.

“Unfortunately we were simply not able to enrol international students because we have not received any spots for study permits.”

A career college like Herzing is basically given a quota based on how many international students they had in previous years, Day said. Herzing typically gets international students as transfers from other institutions and didn’t have any direct applicants, so they were not granted any quota, she said.

International students are also a source of revenue for Herzing, so this will eventually leave them struggling, she said.

Uncertainty among international students

Cheryl Prokopanko, executive director of the Manitoba Council for International Education, says the new federal policy is creating a lot of uncertainty among international students, and the consequence is a dramatic drop in enrolments.

High-quality, talented students are now looking to study elsewhere, she said.

“They contribute to not only the economy, but also to the research that’s being done in our research labs, such as University of Manitoba or the University of Winnipeg and so on,” she said.

“There’s a lot of negative educational consequences for the institutions and for the instructors there and for the students who are attending, whether they’re domestic or international.”