Public colleges, according to a source close to Ministry of Colleges and Universities, have been allocated a staggering 84% of the share – while universities have only garnered a meagre 16%.

Seneca College has officially been given the most PAL allocations – 20,388 – with Conestoga College receiving just under 19,885 and Fanshawe College receiving 16,752.

The table, released on behalf of the source close to MCU, showed that OCAD University, Université de l’Ontario Français and Nipissing University received the least with only a few hundred each.

Canada’s largest higher education institutions by enrolment, University of Toronto and York University, only received around 6,356 and 5,032 PAL allocations respectively.

St Lawrence College, whose private partner college was embroiled in a scandal involving bulk admissions of international students (on which an exposé documentary was centred), received 4,661 allocations; still more of them than almost half of the universities received.

Northern College – which had to reject over 500 students because too many visas were accepted in the fall intake – has been awarded the least amount of allocations for a public college, with 1,360.

The institution that took in those students, Centennial College, has had better luck, receiving the fourth largest allocation, with 15,344.

Announcing the data, international education expert Earl Blaney questioned whether the approach to provide colleges with the large bulk of allocations over universities was the best one for the Ontario provincial government.

He said that by 2019 there was an “enormous shift” from university to community college studies by international students.

The official numbers for Ontario’s PAL allocations by DLI had been the subject of speculation

“It would appear that Ontario’s [PAL] allocation will only cause that trend to accelerate,” Blaney commented.

The official numbers for Ontario’s PAL allocations by DLI had been the subject of speculation by many in sector – the exact data remains to be publicly released by the Ministry of Colleges and Universities itself.

Other provinces were originally more forthcoming with their data. Nova Scotia noted the bulk of its allocation would be going to 10 universities in the province and Nova Scotia Community College, leaving 536 to nine different language schools and 710 to private career colleges.

In Ontario, private career colleges lost out heavily, with a 96% share being announced as going to public college and universities in March.

The University of Prince Edward Island has received the bulk of the province’s allocations, with 1,185, while the remaining 710 are shared between College de I’lle and Holland College.

One note shared with the data said that the numbers listed were communicated to institutions on March 27, 2024.