Every September there’s a week when the international office feels like an airport. Students lining up to ask where to get a SIM card, how to open a bank account, why the name on their study permit is spelled differently from their passport. The phone keeps ringing. Lunch happens at 3pm, if it happens at all.
This year, on a lot of Canadian campuses, that week was quieter.
We’re now a couple of months into the Fall intake. Classes are running, first midterms are around the corner, and the rush is over. As a Canadian company that works with colleges and universities across the country, we wanted to take a moment to share how we see the market right now, and what we’re hearing when we talk with institutions.
First, the numbers
We’ll be honest, they’re hard to read.
Between January and June this year, 22,385 new international students arrived in Canada. In the same months of 2024, it was more than five times that (124,925). That’s a drop of 82%. [1]
The total number of students holding a study permit went from 928,220 at the end of 2024 to 632,175 at the end of June 2026. About a third fewer students in a year and a half. [1]
Most people point to the study permit cap, and the cap is a big part of it. [4] But when the Auditor General of Canada looked closer earlier this year, they found something that surprised us. In 2023, 58% of new study permit applications were approved. In 2024 it was 41%, and by September 2025 it was 38%. The government expected to approve 255,360 new permits in 2025. By September, it had approved 50,370, and the department couldn’t explain why approval rates were so much lower than planned. [2]
Smaller provinces felt it the most. Manitoba, PEI, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were only expected to see small decreases, and Newfoundland and Labrador and Saskatchewan were actually expected to grow. Instead, all of them saw approvals fall by 59% or more in 2024. [2]
There’s one more change that’s easy to miss. The students who are coming look different. The share of international students at universities is returning to its pre-pandemic level of about 40%. [3] And since January 1, 2026, master’s and PhD students at public institutions no longer need a provincial or territorial attestation letter to apply for a study permit. [4] Graduate students often arrive with work experience, a clear idea of the career they want, and sometimes a partner and kids with them. They need different things from a school than an 18-year-old leaving home for the first time.
What we’re hearing from schools
Numbers only tell part of the story. Over the last few months, we’ve been talking with recruitment, international and career teams at colleges and universities across Canada, and a few things keep coming up.
Everyone is stretched. Inboxes are full and calendars are packed, especially around the start of term, even with fewer students coming in.
Some schools are rebuilding how they’re set up. One team told us they were creating a new department and restructuring their services to better support students, and wanted to wait until that settled before taking on anything new. We completely understood, and we think a lot of schools are in a similar place right now.
And the conversations are shifting. More and more, we’re talking about how to turn offers into students who actually enrol, and about career support and the overall experience once they arrive.
It’s time to redesign the journey
A lot of how we support international students was built during the growth years. Big cohorts, packed orientation weeks, one welcome email sent to thousands of people. It worked well enough when there were always more students coming next term.
That’s not where we are anymore.
Think about what it takes for a student to get here today. They chose Canada, chose your school, got through an application process where fewer than 4 in 10 applications were approved [2], said goodbye to their family and got on a plane. Losing that student in the first semester hurts a lot more than it used to. So does the student who graduates, can’t find work, and tells their younger cousin back home that Canada wasn’t worth it.
So we think the question has changed. It used to be “how do we bring in more students?” Now it’s also “what does a really good experience look like for the students we already have?”
For us, that means redesigning the student journey from start to finish. Answering the first email quickly, and like a real person wrote it. Talking about careers before students even land. Making the first few weeks feel less lonely. Starting co-ops and mentorship early instead of leaving them for the final term. And staying with students after graduation, when the pressure to find a job is at its highest.
Why now
It’s tempting to wait until things go back to the way they were. We’re not sure they will, at least not soon.
And honestly, there’s a small window right now. Cohorts are smaller, so teams finally have room to fix the things they never had time for while they were busy welcoming thousands of new students every September.
Some rules are also moving in a good direction. Since April 1, 2026, eligible post-secondary international students don’t need a separate work permit anymore for work placements required by their program, such as co-ops and internships. [5] It’s one less step for students, and it makes it a little simpler to build work experience into the journey from day one.
The next recruitment cycle is already starting, too. The schools that can show students a clear path from arrival to a real career will have the better story to tell.
Where Wayble comes in
Wayble started as a small meetup for international students in Vancouver. Our founder, Pat Chaisang, moved to Canada from Thailand in 2013 to study at SFU, so this journey is personal for us.
Today we work with colleges and universities to support international students from their first application all the way to alumni. Our platform and Co-pilot help students find jobs, mentors, community and mental health support, and help small teams support every student without needing to be everywhere at once. 89% of students said they felt equipped with the skills, knowledge, and experience to pursue their career goals. [6]
If your team is thinking about how to redesign the journey for the students arriving now, we’d really love to be part of that conversation. You can find us at joinwayble.com.
And if you work in international education, we’re curious. What felt different for you this Fall?