The number of international students in Canada is growing

An international study expert expects 7.5 million to attend university and college classes in September. Students have been coming to Canada since just after the second world war. But now their numbers are burgeoning.

“In 2014 there were 4.5 million,” notes Jennifer Humphries, VP of Membership, Public Policy and Communications at the Canadian Bureau for International Education. In 2025 there will be 7.5 million studying outside their home-countries. Of this amount, Canadian colleges and universities will host about 5 per cent.

In 2014 the Canadian government announced plans to double the number of international students and researchers in Canada by 2022 to 450,000. The government estimated the increase would generate some 86,000 new jobs and add an additional $10 billion to the domestic economy each year. Where a Canadian student pays on average about $6000 a year in university fees, an international student pays $20,000.

Jennifer Humphries says Canada’s number of international students has grown over 10 to 12 per cent a year over the last decade.

Humphries says even more high school students are coming from abroad now to position themselves for entry into a Canadian university. And colleges and institutes of applied study are becoming more attractive to international students.

This growing academic population brings several benefits to Canada. Jennifer Humphries says many graduate students come here and play a key role in knowledge generation in research. There are tourist spin-offs when parents come to visit. The students provide social benefits when they connect with the local communities, and she says for many administrators, “the internationalization of the academy” is paramount.

Humphries says in the face of changing demographics in Canada and with skills gaps, international students are a part of the future. International graduates can work for three years in Canada.