Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the committee for having me as a witness today.

My name is Tiffany MacLennan, and I'm a senior research associate at Higher Education Strategy Associates, a consultancy in Toronto. I've studied at St. FX University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and I now hold a master's in education policy analysis from Harvard University.

In my academic and my professional careers, I spend the majority of my time analyzing sectoral trends and understanding what drives decision-making within the Canadian post-secondary education system. The roots of the challenges facing the international student program today run deep, stemming from years of systemic underinvestment and various policy decisions.

For over a decade, provincial government spending on the post-secondary education sector has been stagnant across the country. On top of this stagnation, many provinces have introduced domestic student tuition caps. When combined, these two things have resulted in less real university and college operating funding, per student, over time.

Instead of investing government money, provincial governments encourage colleges and universities to become more entrepreneurial and to produce new revenue sources to meet their costs. As a result, many institutions turn to recruiting significant numbers of international students.

The overreliance on international student recruitment not only became a financial lifeline for many institutions, but also introduced significant pressures on the local infrastructure, particularly on the housing market. The interplay between institutional strategies and inadequate provincial support for housing exacerbated an already critical supply and demand imbalance. Nowhere was this more apparent than in regions like southern Ontario, where some colleges leveraged international student recruitment as a monetized pathway to permanent residency, intensifying an already noticeable strain.

While it is undeniable that action was necessary, the blanket caps have imposed unfair penalization across the entire sector, rather than addressing the practices of a select few bad actors.

The international student caps, however, represent just one facet of the damage that has been inflicted through the recent reforms to the international student program. Broader restrictions on the postgraduate work permit eligibility, limiting attraction to selected high-demand programs, have created additional barriers for both students and institutions. Compounding these challenges is the narrative from the minister, who has openly questioned the quality of Canada's post-secondary sector, labelling certain institutions as “diploma mills”, a term that undermines the credibility of the entire system.

These reputational blows, coupled with the financial strain of the caps, have had a chilling effect on international student recruitment. Many institutions across the country are already reporting steep declines in applications, far exceeding what might be expected solely from the introduction of enrolment limits.

It is crucial to recognize that no single entity is responsible for the series of actions that have brought us to this point. Provincial governments neglected to appropriately fund institutions, colleges and universities leveraged international students as a source of funding, with some overusing the resource, and the federal government took an action that was understood to be a problem.

However, there were many other options that would have been available and less damaging to the sector. To give an example, even setting a limit at a maximum of 25% of the student population being international—allowing for exceptions with things like graduate student programming at U of T bringing in top talent—would have been an alternative that would have punished bad actors without causing harm across the entire sector.

The lack of regional and targeted measures will not only reduce the opportunity for international students to learn in the country, but also decrease opportunities for domestic students. Already, we are seeing institutions cut off entire program offerings, close regional campuses and lay off hundreds of staff members.

A question that should have been considered much more deeply is this: Should students studying in Atlantic Canada, in rural Manitoba or in the interior of B.C. have less access to education as a result of a problem that was largely concentrated in a handful of southern Ontario colleges?

Addressing systemic challenges in higher education requires thoughtful, regionally tailored solutions that balance accountability with the preservation of access and opportunity. Broad, untargeted policies risk undermining the very foundation of an inclusive and robust education system, leaving both international and domestic students to bear the brunt of poorly considered decisions.

I look forward to answering your questions.

Thank you.

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