Is Canada valued extra as a “pathway to immigration” or as a vacation spot for training?

Throughout a 12 June 2025 webinar offered by the Canadian Bureau for Worldwide Training (CBIE) and IDP, IDP Vice President Exterior Affairs for Canada Livia Castellanos shared findings from a survey of counsellors and nation managers in IDP’s international community.

After greater than a 12 months underneath international enrolment caps, frequent adjustments in coverage settings, and falling approval charges for research allow purposes, eight in ten (79%) respondents mentioned that the newly elected federal authorities’s method to worldwide college students, underneath Prime Minister Mark Carney, can be key to restoring Canada’s enchantment to worldwide college students.

When requested what components out there would make college students extra more likely to rethink Canada, IDP counsellors cited the next.

“I feel that now we have all seen the super decline in approvals of research permits,” mentioned Ms Castellanos. “So you may think about how college students usually are not actually trusting our system.”

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC) full-year knowledge for 2024 reveals that solely 45% of research allow purposes had been authorized through the 12 months. Put one other manner, greater than half of all candidates had been rejected. This compares to an approval charge of nearer to 62% of all research allow purposes in 2023.

The purpose being made within the IDP findings is that, with a purpose to restore confidence in research allow processing, the method must be clearer and with extra clear necessities in order that college students, mother and father, and counsellors can higher perceive how a research allow utility will likely be evaluated. Extra importantly, if college students really feel that their purposes will likely be evaluated in a good and clear method and so they have an affordable probability of success, they are going to be extra more likely to apply.

If the approval charge for research permits had been to return to extra historic norms, Ms Castellanos provides, “That may ignite the probability of scholars to be once more drawn to Canada. However a number of college students are terrified of making use of [at the moment]. After which after they get a rejection, the rejection letter [offers few details why].”

Travelling for training or immigration?

“Canada is more and more seen extra as a pathway to immigration than a vacation spot for training,” mentioned Ms Castellanos. “And I feel that may be a concern. I feel it is a sign for all of us within the sector to work collectively to shift the message to refocus on highlighting Canada’s high-quality training.”

When requested what they wish to from Canadian establishments and governments to rebuild scholar confidence in Canada, IDP counsellors and nation managers centered on quite a lot of key factors.

• The necessity to rebuild belief in worldwide scholar markets with clear and secure insurance policies and visa processing. “It’s irritating to see college students with flawless backgrounds get denied,” mentioned one IDP nation supervisor.

• The significance of competing on long-term worth, together with particularly the standard of training and work alternatives for college students throughout and after research. This level recognises that college students go overseas for training however, more and more, their selections are guided by expectations round outcomes after commencement and total return on funding.

• The necessity for clear profession paths for graduates with knowledge from establishments on graduate employment and PGWP outcomes. The implication right here is that establishments have a possibility to strengthen profession companies, extra actively talk success tales and knowledge for scholar outcomes, and start offering these helps to college students earlier of their research overseas expertise.

• The significance of sector alignment round optimistic messaging round research in Canada, a renewed dedication to selling an ideal expertise for visiting college students, and offering excellent help for college students from the purpose of inquiry on.

There is no such thing as a query that the brand new coverage settings launched since January 2024 have dampened scholar demand for Canada. The IDP survey findings clearly exhibit this, however additionally they present quite a lot of essential insights for a way Canadian educators, stakeholders, and companions can rebuild the arrogance of scholars and their households.

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