A drop in the University of Calgary’s international student population is taking a financial toll on the school, with an estimated $11-million loss in revenue this year.
The U of C’s international student enrolment fell from 6,998 last fall to 6,394 this year, a drop of nearly nine per cent.
Because international students often pay two to three times more in tuition than domestic students, the school said it will lose approximately $11 million in tuition revenue this year. It says the loss will grow over time as those students were anticipated to attend through multiple years.
Ermia Rezaei-Afsah, president of the University of Calgary Students’ Union, said the drop in international enrolment creates a larger funding gap for the university.
“It’s going to impact not only the quality of our scholarship, but the future of Alberta and the future that students have in this province,” Rezaei-Afsah said.
“There’s just less money in the system resulting in less innovation, less research coming out of our institutions, out of institutions across Canada”
International enrolment is down by close to nine per cent this year at the University of Calgary. The school estimates it will lose $11 million in revenue this year alone, and points to federal changes and geopolitics as the cause. But aside from the financial impact, advocates say the loss of international students will also hurt the ability to conduct research on campuses across the country.
The U of C is projecting this revenue hit even as its domestic student tuition increased roughly five per cent, with 31,781 students this fall compared to 30,402 last year.
The drop in international enrolment comes after the federal government announced in September it will issue 437,000 new study permits in 2025 and 2026, down from its target of 485,000 permits this year. At the time, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said the government expects the changes to lead to approximately 300,000 fewer permits issued in the next three years.
In a statement to CBC News, the University of Calgary said the new federal cap will continue to have an impact on universities across Canada.
“The federal approach does create challenges. The current impact on enrolment is connected to the swift, sweeping and ongoing changes to federal measures and the impacts of geopolitics,” the U of C statement said.
The school added that it values what international students contribute to a diverse and vibrant campus environment, and to the school’s research, innovation and entrepreneurship.
The problem isn’t entirely on the shoulders of the U of C, Rezaei-Afsah said. He said the school is doing its best to find alternative forms of funding, adding it’s good for the university to not rely on international students as piggy banks to make up for funding shortfalls. But the school doesn’t have many other options, he noted, adding he’d like to see other partners step up in support of post-secondary education.
“Since the budget cuts in 2019, universities in Alberta have been forced to rely on international students to make up the budget gap that has been left,” Rezaei-Afsah said, referring to the province reducing its operating grant to the school by $32.9 million that year.
“We really want to see investment from the Government of Alberta into post-secondary education because now we really don’t have many options or levers left.”
At Mount Royal University, international students account for around 3.7 per cent of the student population. The university says it planned for a potential reduction in international students this fall, and adjusted its budget accordingly. But the total number of international students at MRU year is projected to be relatively close to last year’s total, the school said.
As the federal government’s cap closes the door for more international students to come to Canada, the effect this will have on the research coming out of Canada’s top schools is concerning, said Universities Canada president and CEO Gabriel Miller.
“Canada is going to take a hit in terms of its ability to attract the most talented people in the world to come here and fill roles researching artificial intelligence, health treatments, measures that could improve our economy, improve manufacturing, support our natural resource industries,” Miller said.
“What I hear when I hear that we’re losing researchers is we’re losing our economic competitiveness.”
A spokesperson for Alberta’s ministry of advanced education said Wednesday the province is aware that the federal cap on international students will affect the province’s post-secondary schools. The spokesperson said the province is engaging those schools to assess the potential impacts and is advocating to the federal government to increase funding.
Earlier this year, the U of C Students’ Union raised alarm over student tuition representing more revenue for the University of Calgary than the Campus Alberta grant in the school’s 2024-25 budget. That was a shift the province had been working toward for years as it wants universities to be less reliant on taxpayer dollars.
Earlier this month, the province announced it was forming a panel to review post-secondary funding in Alberta after the federal cuts to international student permits.
The University of Calgary is also considering tuition hikes for next year. It’s looking at a two per cent domestic tuition increase for undergraduate and some graduate programs, and a six per cent international tuition hike in the same programs.
Miller said provinces have a responsibility to ensure post-secondary institutions are properly funded, but added the federal government has a role to play to grow its investments in research and attract international students to the country.
“We can’t let the quality of our universities or access to them suffer or we’re going to have a whole new set of challenges for young people who want to own a home, earn a good living, raise a family and have opportunity in the future,” Miller said.
The cap on international students combined with an increased level of hostility that some international students also face in Canada has made the country a less appealing place to study, Rezaei-Afsah said. The result can make it difficult for universities to recruit enough students to meet the international enrolment total allocated for them.
Lower international student enrolment will have a negative impact on the level of research coming out of Canadian schools, Rezaei-Afsah said.
“The resource pool is just smaller,” Rezaei-Afsah said. “There’s just less money in the system resulting in less innovation, less research coming out of our institutions across Canada, whether it’s the University of Winnipeg or the University of Toronto.”