How Canada Should Be Your Best Study Destination in 2025?

Canada, a country with friendly people, amazing infrastructure, a peaceful environment, and quality education. Canada has always been the number one study destination amongst international students for many years. Every year, the enrolment number goes up, at least till 2023, thanks to the Indian community, who played an amazing role in sending young Indian boys and girls to study in Canada. Even if we take a closer look at 2022 data, it would reveal that a total of around 550,000 international students received the study permit, out of which 226,000 were from India; likewise, for 2023, the federal government approved a total of 684,305 international students, out of which 278,335 were from India. Of course, Punjabis and Gujaratis love to go to Canada for studies.

Things were pretty awesome till 2023, but suddenly something unexpected happened. Yes, Mr Trudeau wanted to be the apple of the eye in front of domestic people (we believe it is for the sake of the 2025 election) as well as in front of the world. This is the reason he indirectly blamed the Indian government in front of the Canadian parliament and put an allegation on having the hands over the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian Sikh who was involved with the Khalistani movement. Things took a nasty turn, and even Trudeau did not expect this. Both countries have expelled their diplomats and issued advisories for their citizens to take extra precautions while travelling. Yet, the ones who were impacted the most by these repercussions were Indian students and Canadian Institutions. After this tit-for-tat process, the Canadian government made some hard decisions to hinder the inflow of international students, which is indirectly affecting, on a large scale, Indian students who are coming to Canada for further studies, but after these challenges, how should Canada be your best study destination?

After the turmoil between India and Canada, A Canadian politician, Mr Marc Miller, who was working as the Minister of immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship, chalked out many reforms in the international student sector, which helped Indian students look for other study destinations such as the USA, the UK, and Europe. Here is a glimpse of back-to-back updates by the federal government.

Latest Changes made by the Canadian government for International students

Increased living costs for international students

The first step ex-minister Marc Miller took to attract the overseas education market was to increase the living expenses and put an extra burden on international students who were planning to come to Canada. The new rule was applied on 1st Jan 2024. He increased the funds to CAD 20,635 from CAD 10,000 previously. To better inform international students about the true cost of living in this area, we are revising the cost-of-living criteria. The much-needed adjustments will shield overseas students from financial hardship and exploitation, according to Ex. Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Minister Marc Miller.

Please note – Canada had revoked the Student Direct Stream category for International students as of 8th November 2024, where GIC or living expenses for one year was a compulsory component.

The veracity of the offer letter 

Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship of Canada, or IRCC, also outlined measures to protect international students and strengthen the integrity of Canada‘s international student program. As per the announcement, starting Dec 1, 2023, every DLI institution needs to confirm every applicant’s offer letter directly with IRCC. DLI institutions are those institutions that have the power to host international students.

Cap on International students’ intake

After getting pressure from the local community on housing and infrastructure issues, Marc Miller also announced a cap on international students for 2024 and 2025. According to him, there will be a reduction of 35% in new study visas for 2024. In 2024, the cap was set to 485,000 newly granted permits only. For 2025, the cap is set to be 437,000.

Introduction of Pre-Attestation Letter

The federal government also introduced a new terminology. Pre-Attestation Letter, or PAL. It is announced that to apply for a study permit, the majority of incoming international post-secondary students, whether at the college or undergraduate level, must now obtain a PAL from a province or territory. Master’s degree holders and PhD scholars are not required to obtain a PAL from the province or territory.

New Language Proficiency Requirements

The federal government also made some changes in language proficiency and kept it to ensure that graduates can effectively move around the post-graduate work experience and the transition to permanent residency with the language skills they need. As per the announcement, university graduates must achieve a Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) of 7, which is equivalent to 6 bands in IELTS, whereas for college graduates, a CLB of 5 is required.

Post-study work permit changes

As per the latest announcement made by IRCC, if you are planning to come to Canada for further studies and file the study permit on 1st Nov or afterward, then you need to make sure that the stream you are going to choose in the college must be under the list of eligible post-study work programmes; otherwise, you are not entitled to receive stayback options in Canada. However, students who are willing to enrol in the universities are unaffected by this change and will still be eligible for post-study work permits irrespective of their field of study.

Although the Canadian government in March 2025 made changes and allowed public colleges offering degree programs to students would be eligible for a post-graduate work permit irrespective of the field of study.

How Canada should be your best study destination?

Of course, Canada has launched so many reforms related to international students, and all the reforms that have been taken should have been taken long ago; never mind. but the main purpose of these reforms is the same: to take the international students’ bulk in a systematic way or in a structured way and to mitigate the number of fraud while recruiting students from across the globe and taking only genuine students who can come here only for study and either help the local economy or their motherland economy. Let’s take a deep dive into the real picture of Canada as a future study destination and how it is the only country in the world that will be the best amongst Indian students.

Immigration Plan

As per the immigration plan chalked out by IRCC, Maple Country is looking for immigrants, and as per the Immigration plan 2025-2027, Canada needs 395,000 immigrants by 2025, 380,000 by 2026, and 365,000 by 2027. This plan is designed to mitigate the pressures on housing, healthcare, and infrastructure while promoting economic growth. Canada is struggling with a labour shortage in crucial sectors, and it is very important to address it. Under “Federal Economic Priorities”, a larger portion of economic admissions is given to skilled workers, with an emphasis on vital industries like skilled crafts and health care, in acknowledgement of the significance of assisting these sectors. Since the economic category accounts for the biggest percentage of admissions annually, nearly 62% by 2027, supporting the Canadian economy remains a top goal of this Levels Plan.

FIFA World Cup

Those of you who are fans of football or soccer must be aware that the FIFA World Cup will be jointly hosted by Canada, the USA, and Mexico in 2026. It will create more jobs, whether you talk about the ground staff or the technical staff. Since it is a world-level event, all eyes will be on Canada to see how well it will take place, and it will create more job opportunities both part-time and full-time.

Canada is aging

Like many Western nations, Canada is facing severe ageing issues with a lower birth rate. According to federal government data, by 2035, millions of Canadians will retire, and there will be only three workers for every retiree, meaning that 25% of the population will be retired by then, Mint reported. It is simple math: if the country wants to grow instead of shrink, it will have to invite immigrants. It is one of the biggest reasons that Canada does not have any other choices.

Canadian institutions are run by Indian student fees

Can you guess the spending done by Indian students for overseas education? Well, as per the report, Indian students spent around $47 billion in 2022, which is expected to rise to as high as $70 billion by 2025. Though it is an overall survey, for Canada also the figure is very high because an Indian student spends around 10-17 lakh indian rupees or around $25,000 Canadian dollars per year. Only Punjab students spend around 68,000 crore INR or nearly $8 billion annually. This money not only helps Canadian institutions to expand but also fuels the local economy.

No other country has this much capacity to take international students

Though Canada has started putting a cap on international students, it is the only country in the world that has this much capacity to invite international students. The UK and the USA are on a hot study destination list, yet Canada is winning the race for immigrants and international students by offering so many faster PR conversion schemes.

Please note: The above-given information is provided only for educational purposes, and the content has been published by my research

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