Emerging data have revealed that Canada has issued roughly twice as many new study permits to international graduate students as of spring 2026 as it did in 2025, even though fewer of them applied.
The figures suggest a shift in immigration policy is reshaping who is coming to study in the country.
Pan-Atlantic Kompass reports that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) revealed that it has issued 6,455 permits to new graduate students in the second quarter of 2026, up from 3,085 in the same period of 2025. That is the most recent quarter for which data is available.
The increase came despite a drop in demand. About 23,480 international graduate students applied for new or extended permits in the quarter, around 12% fewer than a year earlier. So more applicants were approved even as fewer applied.
Graduate students also make up a much larger share of the total. An IRCC spokesperson, Melissa Zeroual, said master’s and doctoral students accounted for 12% of all study permits issued in 2025 and 21% so far this year.
A change of direction
These numbers follow a major change in Canada’s approach to international students.
In 2024, the government capped study permits after a surge in enrolments, particularly in some college and university undergraduate programs.
At the time, then-immigration minister Marc Miller accused some programs of operating like “puppy mills” and said many students weren’t attending classes. Critics argued that some institutions had come to depend on international students, who pay far higher tuition than Canadians, to plug budget gaps.
Under Prime Minister Mark Carney, the government has turned its attention to advanced-degree students. Immigration minister Lena Metlege Diab in January stated that Canada needs these students to help grow its economy.
Removing barriers
Several measures have been introduced to make Canada more attractive to graduate applicants:
– Graduate students are now exempt from the requirement to hold a Provincial or Territorial Attestation Letter, which shows a student has been counted within a province’s permit allocation. Zeroual said the change removes an administrative hurdle in recognition of grad students’ contribution to innovation and economic growth.
– PhD applicants have been promised that their paperwork will be processed within 14 days.
Zeroual said the rise is not a one-off. IRCC expects the trend to continue, with further graduate-focused measures planned for 2026 and a sustained push to attract talent at the master’s and doctoral level.
Early signs from campuses
Most universities won’t publish graduate enrolment figures until the end of the year, but the University of British Columbia (UBC) offers an early indicator.
Shane Moore, marketing and recruitment manager in UBC’s faculty of graduate and postdoctoral studies, said international graduate applications are up 15% in 2026, with doctoral applications up 30%. He said interest is especially strong from the United States, India, Nigeria and Iran.
Robert Asselin, head of the U15 group of Canada’s leading research universities, welcomed the trend as “great news,” noting that Canada needs more graduate students, especially at the doctoral level.
