A federal cap on study permits has slashed international enrolments at Atlantic universities by more than a quarter in just one year.

International student numbers fell 28 per cent across the region’s universities in 2025, a loss of 6,431 students, according to a new report from the Association of Atlantic Universities (AAU).

That drop stands in sharp contrast to the 5.4-per cent decline reported at the University of Manitoba, one of the few other Canadian post-secondary institutions to release its 2025 figures so far this year.

In 2024, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) introduced a national cap on international study permits, aiming for a 35 per cent reduction. At the time, then-immigration minister Marc Miller said the international student system was set up to attr

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