Share of Indians among Canada students dropped from 50% in 2023 to 10% in 2025

The share of Indians among the incoming international student population in Canada dropped from a peak of more than 50% in 2023 to less than 10% in 2025, according to a report submitted to Parliament by Canada’s Auditor General on Monday. The report on International Student Program Reforms also rapped the country’s immigration department for having fallen short in key areas. The report said that between 2023 and 2024, the department identified over 153,000 students as potentially non-compliant with study permit conditions but had funding to investigate just 2,000 cases each year. (REUTERS)According to data presented in the report, Indians accounted for 51.6% of the incoming international student population in 2023, and that number dropped to 33.6 per cent in 2024, and till September 2025, the cohort’s percentage fell sharply to 8.1 per cent. In a statement, Auditor General Karen Hogan said, “Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada implemented reforms to the International Student Program that supported a reduction in new study permits but fell short in other key areas.” She added, “The department needs to act on the information it has to address integrity concerns in the program.”The report said that between 2023 and 2024, the department identified over 153,000 students as potentially non-compliant with study permit conditions but had funding to investigate just 2,000 cases each year. It pointed out that in three investigations, IRCC identified 800 study permits issued between 2018 and 2023 for which applicants had either “used fraudulent documentation or misrepresented information on their applications to gain entry into Canada.” Most of those individuals later applied for other immigration permits once in Canada. In that context it said that “in providing evidence of their previous educational experience, 710 applicants claimed to have attended educational institutions overseas that risk assessment units later found to be either non-existent or institutions selling qualifications for immigration purposes.” IRCC did not take enforcement action, and currently, 110 of those individuals have applied for asylum. It called on IRCC to “follow up on all applications flagged for potential fraud through its new verification system.”In its response, IRCC agree to provide the Canada Border Services Agency annually with a list of individuals with expired permits, who have not applied for or received an extension, or applied for or transitioned to permanent residence, or otherwise maintained valid immigration status. The report noted that since 2019, Canada promoted itself as a destination for international students, highlighting education as a pathway to permanent residency, and, consequently, new study permit applications escalated 121 per cent from approximately 426,000 that year to about 943,000 in 2023. Facing a backlash over the surge in temporary residents, including international students, the Government started reducing the intake. As application volumes and approval rates decreased, the number of permits issued fell under IRCC’s projections. In 2024, it forecast approving 348,900 new study permits but only 149,559 were approved. That represented a 67 per cent reduction compared with 2023. Till September last year, the forecast was 255,360 and actual approvals 50,370 were approved. The report stated that approval rates were 41 per cent in 2024 and 38 per cent in September 2025, compared with 58 per cent in 2023. While IRCC had “expected approval rates like those of 2023”, the report found it “did not know why its approval rates were lower than projected.”