Ontario’s college sector has been leaning heavily on international students for years, but new data shows that even before Ottawa announced its latest cuts to immigration levels, the number of students coming from abroad had already begun to slow, suggesting the system is running below capacity well ahead of federal targets.
According to The State of Postsecondary Education in Canada 2025 report, international students accounted for 32.4 per cent of all college enrolments nationwide in 2023-24, with Ontario colleges hosting more than half of those learners, by far the largest concentration in the country.
But while Ontario once experienced “rapid growth” in international enrolment, the report notes that numbers have already plateaued, even before the federal government’s new limit of 155,000 permits per year begins in 2026.