(Ben Tompkins/northeastNOW)

By Ben Tompkins

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada

Saskatchewan Colleges expecting to see more international students despite policy changes

Feb 9, 2024 | 5:15 PM

Thanks to recent policy changes from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), Suncrest College is expecting more international students in 2024.

While the changes will reduce the overall number of international students in Canada as a whole, colleges across the province should actually see an increase.

Kristy Sletten, Saskatchewan Colleges Manager of International Admissions, says Saskatchewan is one of few provinces positioned to see a provincial allocation of international students that allows for reasonable increases from 2023 levels.

The provincial government will be responsible for distributing Saskatchewan’s allocation amongst post-secondary institutes within the province.

“Each province will be looked at independently, which is quite nice, because there’s a great deal of difference between the capacity of different provinces, in various regards,” explained Sletten.

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“Each province has also been given the opportunity to allocate the international study permits that are granted for their jurisdiction, which is also quite positive because normally provinces don’t really have that much power in terms of immigration.”

Saskatchewan Colleges is an international recruitment and admissions partnership between Great Plains, North West, and Suncrest College.

According to Sletten, the capacity of all three colleges right now remains quite strong.

“The opportunity for us to have students participate in our programs so that they can help fill labour market demand in our rural communities is something that exists, so we are looking forward to the opportunity to continue that trend,” she added.

In 2023-24, Saskatchewan Colleges welcomed over 300 international students to rural Saskatchewan to help address this shortfall, and it’s anticipated that 2024 will see up to 350 total students.

The vast majority of these students are in blended cohort programs which means there are both domestic and international students in the same classrooms.

“International students have really created a deep pool of candidates for filling some of the labour market needs that we have, specifically to the rural Saskatchewan setting where our institutions operate,” Sletten said.

“The opportunity for us to continue to offer programming at all of our locations is dependent upon international students, so it allows us to maintain programming for our domestic populations in the communities where they’re living.”

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