During a virtual town hall on April 9, Fanshawe College president Peter Devlin told staff that Fanshawe’s 2024 study permit numbers would remain mostly unchanged.

On April 5, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Marc Miller announced the allocation of international student permits for each province and territory. Ontario will issue 141,000 study permits for 2024, a significant decrease from the 239,753 permits issued in 2023. As a result, Fanshawe will receive 10,920 study permits for 2024, and an approximate 55/45 international/domestic student ratio, roughly unchanged from the year before.

“96 per cent of the allocation is for international students went to publicly assisted colleges and universities. 80 per cent of the allocation went to colleges. There was none to private colleges,” Devlin said.

Additionally, Devlin explained that the ministry has directed some first-year international students to priority programs like ECD (Early Childhood Education), hospitality, tourism, health, human services, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), construction and trades.

“[The province has] a minimum number of international students that must enroll in those programs, and we’re confident that we will reach that need,” Devlin said and added that there is also a two-year moratorium on enrolling international students in some one-year business and management programs.

Devlin said some part-time faculty and staff will likely be impacted in some programs but did not provide details.

“I suspect there will be other areas... where we will need additional part-time faculty and staff. We’ll review our programs and the necessary investments for the fall 2024 semester and update our hiring need,” Devlin said.

Fanshawe will also continue to partner with the International Language Academy of Canada (ILAC), though Devlin said the future is unclear. This year, 2,800 students will be enrolled, but international students in such partnerships can no longer receive a post-graduation work permit.

“We will assess our relationship with ILAC as we move forward. For a couple of years, though, we will have Fanshawe students studying at the Toronto campus,” Devlin said.

The government had previously announced it would be providing $1.2 billion to stabilize finances in the post-secondary sector, and Devlin said Fanshawe would receive somewhere between $4 million to $5 million of those funds.

Devlin highlighted the province’s decision to maintain its tuition freeze for domestic students until 2027, ruling out the potential for domestic student tuition rates to alleviate the financial difficulties of Ontario educational institutions.