Quebec caps international students but is hazy on numbers

Quebec is taking steps to cut the number of international students in the province, but can’t say by how many.

The government will issue a maximum of around 124,000 acceptance certificates to foreign students this year, down from more than 156,000 last year.

The measure targets private colleges that the government has said are using education as a business model to sell citizenship.

But not everyone who receives a certificate ends up enrolling, and Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry says it’s hard to know whether the new limit will lead to a drop in registration.

The government says there were 120,000 international students in Quebec in 2023, up from 50,000 nearly a decade earlier.

Quebec has promised to reduce the number of non-permanent residents in the province, which it pegs around 615,000 people.