Can Canada Win Back International Students? Inside the “Learn Canadian” Campaign

Colleges and universities across the country are now feeling the pinch. It’s a far cry from the boom years when classrooms were buzzing with students from every corner of the world. 

With the country’s global image on the line, education leaders are rallying to win back trust and students. A new national campaign aims to remind the world that Canada is still a welcoming, world-class place to learn and grow.

What’s Changing and the Numbers Behind Canada’s Student Decline 

At the heart of this comeback is the Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE), the national organization representing Canada’s schools abroad. 

On November 3, at its annual conference in Québec City, CBIE unveiled Learn Canadian – a new digital campaign designed to rebuild Canada’s reputation in international education. 

The campaign, part of CBIE’s Global Campaign Initiative, was developed in response to recent policy changes and growing international competition. It highlights Canada’s academic excellence, diversity, and progressive values, aiming to reverse the narrative from restriction to renewal and remind the world what makes Canada unique.  

Enrollment and Permit Declines 

The urgency behind Learn Canadian is real, with massive drops in international enrollment nationally. There are now just over 800,000 international students in Canada, down from one million in 2023. This is mostly due to last year’s Immigration Levels Plan in which the federal government announced a target of 305,900 for new international student arrivals in 2025.  

In early 2024, then-immigration minister Marc Miller announced sweeping reforms to “rein in runaway growth” in international student numbers, with study permit caps. 

The decision followed growing public concern over housing shortages and population pressure. Critics said the system had become unsustainable, with some exploiting loopholes in private colleges and “diploma mills.” 

To address this: 

• Cut new study permits by 35 percent in 2024, with another 10 percent reduction in 2025

• Tightened post-graduation work-permit rules

• Limited off-campus work hours 

Now, under the 2026–2028 Immigration Levels Plan, the federal government plans to further reduce new international student permits to 155,000 in 2026, followed by 150,000 in 2027 and 2028. This latest reduction follows multiple rounds of cuts intended to manage housing pressures and stabilize the system. Read about the full numbers and what they mean for international students here. 

According to ApplyBoard, while Canada’s 2025 study-permit target is about 437,000, more than 60 percent of those are renewals or extensions rather than new arrivals. And IRCC data show that in the first eight months of 2025, new student arrivals declined by more than 132,000 compared with the same period in 2024. 

Those numbers paint a harsh picture, that the world’s perception of Canada as an open, stable study destination has wavered and rebuilding that trust won’t be easy.  

Institutional Fallout 

• Saskatchewan Polytechnic: Enrolment down 40 percent and 17 programs cancelled.

• Ontario colleges: 10,000 job losses and more than 600 programs cut.  

• Nationally: 35 campus closures and thousands of layoffs since late 2024.

For a sector once valued at $38.6 billion, this decline has been enormous. 

How Canada’s Approach Has Evolved 

Canada’s international-education strategy was built around growth, with recruitment often leaning on immigration pathways and post-graduation work options. That approach worked when numbers were soaring, but it left little room to adapt to changing policies. 

Now the sector is refocusing. Across the country, institutions are working to rebuild trust. In Alberta, where the federal government actually increased study-permit allocations, universities are still fighting negative perceptions. 

Even with a larger share of study-permit allocations, universities in Alberta are still battling perception – according to Doug Weir, acting Vice-Provost (International) at the University of Alberta, showing that rebuilding trust takes more than extra spaces. 

Niagara College President Sean Kennedy echoes the sentiment: “The message will be, ‘Come and grow your future as a global citizen.’” 

While the goal was to stabilize the system, the message landed harshly abroad. To many, it sounded like Canada was closing its doors. The goal of Learn Canadian is to counter misinformation and restore confidence in Canada’s education brand.  

“When all people hear about are limits and restrictions, you leave the impression that there are no opportunities,” Larissa Bezo, CBIE’s President and CEO said. 

By engaging policymakers, institutions, and students themselves, the campaign delivers a coordinated, student-focused message that Canada is still committed to high-quality education, research, and opportunity. As well as building a fairer, more ethical international education system for the future. 

It’s a clear change from policy-driven marketing to values-driven storytelling, a move from “come for the visa” to “come for the experience.”  

What This Means for International Students 

For current and future students, the caps and numbers might feel unsettling, more paperwork, stricter timelines, longer waits. But the picture isn’t all bleak. 

The Learn Canadian campaign aims to show that Canada still sees international learners as vital. Schools like the University of Alberta are backing that up with concrete support: 

• Guaranteed housing for first-year students

• Stable tuition to protect against currency swings

• Dedicated advisors to help navigate study-permit and renewal processes

For international students, this is supposed to show a clearer and more sustainable path ahead. But as the system tightens, what does “sustainable” really mean? Across the country, universities are already scaling back. Cutting programs, freezing hires, and shelving research that once relied on international enrolment. Stability might be the goal, but it’s coming with real trade-offs. 

Canada says it hasn’t closed its doors, only that it’s rebuilding them on stronger foundations. Maybe so. Yet every reduction in permits reshapes what schools can offer and who gets to be part of that experience. The hope now is that in rebuilding, Canada doesn’t lose the diversity and energy that made its classrooms thrive in the first place.