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.
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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.
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