Aspiring International Students Pushing Enrollment Growth

Statistics Canada recently published a new study examining international student enrollments as a parameter to study the effects of the pandemic on students. Data from the 2018/2019 academic year was used for the purposes of this study.

Main findings of the study

Before the onset of the coronavirus, International students were enrolling in Canadian DLIs at thrice the rate of domestic students. More than 2.1 million students found themselves in Canadian learning institutions during that academic cycle.

• With a decrease in funding from the provincial governments, universities in Canada have been heavily dependent on student tuition as their primary source of income. As it happens, international students pay more for their tuition than domestic students. This, coupled with the enrollment growth, led to international students contributing around 40% of total tuition across Canada in 2018, which stands for about $4 billion.
• Programs related to business, public administration, and management have seen significant enrollment growth between 2008 and 2018 due to international students. The number of international students opting for these fields went up by 200% as compared to the 7.7% for domestic students.
• With Canada becoming more immigrant-friendly, international students understood that they would benefit from studying here. International student enrollments have risen from 101,000 approximately to over 318,000 between 2008 and 2018. Moreover, the enrollment rate in formal programs also went by 10.9% during this period. As a result, international students account for 57.2% of the growth in program enrollments across the board.
• Enrollments in STEM subjects have increased over the years with the changing needs of the labor market. However, enrollment in Humanities has also increased for international students.

The continued participation of international students is crucial to Canada’s economy in the coming years.