A report by Canada’s auditor general says approvals of new study permits for British Columbia and other provinces fell far below targets after federal changes to the international student program in 2024.
The report, released Monday by Auditor General Karen Hogan, says Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has not effectively implemented reforms to Canada’s system for accepting international students and could not explain why approval rates were significantly lower than projected.
B.C. was expected to see an 18 per cent decline in new study permits in 2024 compared to the previous year. However, the report says the actual decline was 66 per cent. New study permits in B.C. were down 47 per cent in 2025 as of last September.
“[The IRCC] did not assess whether its reform measures were contributors either to the reduction in the number of applications that were submitted or to its lower approval rates,” the report said.
B.C.’s Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills said in an emailed statement it is reviewing the report.
“The Auditor General concludes that the federal government did not implement the changes over the last two years effectively. The report also confirms that B.C. post-secondary institutions have been hit much harder than intended by the federal government,” the ministry said. “The cuts they imposed impacted legitimate applicants and institutions, and needlessly damaging Canada’s reputation as a destination for quality education.”
The ministry said it is also concerned that IRCC is not devoting the necessary resources to investigations of non-compliance.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada announced in January 2024 it would impose a two-year cap on the number of post-secondary study permit applications it would accept, citing the need to reduce pressure on housing, health care and other services, and to protect students from exploitation.
The department said the number of study permit holders dropped from more than one million in January 2024 to about 725,000 by September 2025.
The IRCC notes that, while it sets a “ceiling,” provinces and territories decide which learning institutions receive spaces and how many each institution receives.
The auditor general report also says the department did not effectively monitor or adjust to the unintended impacts of study permit reductions.
The report says that in 2023 and 2024, the department identified more than 153,000 students as potentially non-compliant with study permit conditions but had funding to investigate only 2,000 cases each year.
Over those two years, IRCC launched more than 4,000 investigations into students potentially not complying with study permit conditions. More than 1,600 cases were not closed because the students never responded to requests for information.
The report also says that between 2018 and 2023, IRCC found that applicants in more than 800 study permits had either used fraudulent documentation or misrepresented information on their applications to enter Canada.
“Most of these individuals later applied for other immigration permits once in Canada,” the report said.
Overall, the report says less populous provinces were the most disadvantaged by the way Canada allocated spaces, including Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the Atlantic provinces.
The auditor general made six recommendations for IRCC to improve the program, including collaborating with provinces to tailor how it allocates study permits, and strengthening its response to fraud.
Lena Diab, Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, said her ministry accepts the recommendations to strengthen follow-up where suspects fraud or non-compliance is identified.
“At the same time, this report captures only the first 18 months of a broader multi-year reform effort that runs through 2027. It reflects an early phase of implementation, not the full impact of the changes now underway,” said Diab in a statement.
She also notes provinces and territories did not fully use their allocated spaces under the cap in 2024 and 2025.
IRCC said a total of 309,670 study permit application spaces will be available under the cap for 2026. B.C. has been allocated 32,596 of those spaces.
A spokesperson for the University of Victoria said international undergraduate enrolment has decreased in recent years, from 2,566 students in 2020/21 to 1,345 students in 2025/26.
“Our new student intake targets are modest, and our modelling suggests that even with the recent federal reductions, UVic will be able to meet our enrolment expectations for 2026/27,” they said.
University of British Columbia spokesperson Thandi Fletcher said the university has made “operational adjustments” to reduce spending in recent years and expects to present a balanced budget for the next fiscal year.
“UBC navigated this period thoughtfully, and we are now seeing positive signs with both enrolment and applications showing a modest increase,” said Fletcher.
