Indians worst hit as Canada cuts down on student intake

Indian students seem to be taking the biggest hit by the decision of Canada — their most preferred destination thus far — to sharply reduce the number of study permits issued to international students.

The latest data available for April 2026 showed that the number of new study permits and renewals issued to Indian students saw a 16% drop compared with last April, which itself was a striking 84% decline compared to April 2024 — an indication that opportunities for Indian students in the North American country could shrink further.

As of 2025, Canada accounted for about 34%, or one-third of the roughly 12.54 lakh Indian students studying abroad, surpassing other key destinations like the U.S, the U.K. and Australia.

This share is likely to witness a steep decline in the coming years with Canada’s 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plans (ILP) slashing the annual cap on issuance of new permits for foreign students by 50%, compared with its ILP for 2025-2027.

The impact was first felt in 2025 when student permits issued to Indians in April 2025 came down to just 6,895, an 81% drop from 36,510 issued in April 2024. This has further declined to 5,795 this year, of which many could be renewals. The disaggregated numbers on new permits and renewals are not available.

Canada was not only the most preferred destination for Indian students; Indians accounted for the largest share of foreign nationals studying in the country.

After accounting for just 14.6% of total international students in Canada in 2015, Indians overtook the Chinese in 2018 to become the single largest student immigration group in the country.

This trend of a steady increase since 2015 to a peak of 41.2% in 2022 is now witnessing a swift reversal. In a single year, the share declined sharply by 12 percentage points from 36.6 % in 2024 to 24.6% in 2025, the lowest since 2016.

Major impact

It is not just Indian students who are taking the hit due to Canada’s shift to allow far fewer students in its bid to bring immigration back to sustainable levels, as articulated in its 2026-2028 ILP.

The country, which saw the number of persons holding student permits tripling from about 2.2 lakh in 2015 to 6.8 lakh in 2023, has brought down the figure by 44% to 3.8 lakh in 2025.

Though students from other countries have also taken a hit, the biggest impact seems to be felt by Indians.

While the overall numbers of students from all countries fell by 44%, the number of Indian students fell by 66% from 2.78 lakh in 2023 to 93,915 in 2025.

Moreover, a Reuters report, published in November last year, citing data from Canada’s immigration department, said that about 74% of Indian applications for study permits in Canada in August 2025 were rejected, compared with about 32% in August 2023. While the overall rejection rate stood at 40% in August 2025, it was just 24% for Chinese students.

What could be worrying for Indian students aspiring to study abroad is that it is not just Canada, but that other popular destinations like the U.S, the U.K. and Australia are also tightening their policies. For instance, the number of Indian students who entered the U.K. declined by 13% in 2024-25 compared to 2023-24.

Earlier this year, Australia’s Home Affairs flagged an alert for student visa applications from India, moving Indian students from evidence level 2 to evidence level 3 or the ‘highest risk’ category.

Data for the charts were sourced from the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRGC)’S statistics on international students and Lok Sabha Questions and Answers