Canada

After a year of record lows in Canada, charting a path towards stability in 2026 will depend on visa processing reform and shifting political discourse, say experts, entering the year with a cautious sense of hope.

From continued caps and cuts to political shakeups and reputation rebuilding, 2025 was another turbulent year for Canadian international education – here are the stories that sum it up.

Following a year of scale reduction and a narrowing of how international education is understood in Canada, Philipp Reichert looks back at 2025 and asks what is next for 2026.

While approval rates for university-level bachelor’s programs rebounded to 2022 levels this year, the downward trend for college programs only worsened.

With declines in the US closely trailing Canada, experts say losses across North America reflect a fundamental rebalancing of global talent pipelines.

Canada has unveiled a CAD$1.7 billion initiative to recruit more than 1,000 top international researchers over the next 12 years.

As Canada bears the brunt of economic headwinds and political uncertainty across the ‘big four’, a new report has tipped Europe as the region poised for the most striking growth in 2026.

Following two years of missed study permit targets, stakeholders say Canada’s 7% cap reduction for 2026 is unlikely to make a material difference, as visa approval rates remain at record lows.

After misleading early narratives around Carney's 2025 Budget, The PIE unpacks the data and subsequent policy clarifications to assess what the financial plans mean for Canadian international higher education.

Canadian and US universities have reported sharp drops in international enrolments, while Asia, Europe and the UK are seeing growth, new data has revealed.

International education advocates in Canada are criticising proposed legislation that would give the federal government the power to cancel study permits en masse for reasons of national security or in a health crisis such as a pandemic.

International graduate students applying to public Canadian institutions will once again be exempt from federal study permit caps as of January 2026, the government has announced.

A new partnership between the University of Ottawa and France Universités will pave the way for a France‑Canada campus.

The Canadian government has set out plans to slash new international study permits by more than 50% in 2026-28, in liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first federal budget.