“How bad does it look?”
This was the question posed by Laurentian University board member Brian Ramakko during the governing body’s April 25 meeting regarding international student recruitment.
Laurentian University and all other post-secondary institutions in this country have been taking a hit in international students due to federal policy changes.
After international student numbers exploded across Canada in recent years, causing issues that include pressures on housing, the federal government started putting in place rules in 2024 to reduce their numbers.
International students have been seen as a ready source of cash in the post-secondary sector, as they are charged higher tuition fees than domestic students.
Provost Malcolm Campbell provided the board with up-to-date numbers with regards to new, prospective students who have applied to the university and confirmed they will be attending this fall.
New international students who have confirmed they want to attend Laurentian this fall are down 55 per cent. “That’s a pretty profound impact for us,” Campbell said.
On the bright side, though, new domestic students who have confirmed their attendance this fall are up 22 per cent.
In terms of students who had applied to Laurentian as of March 11, but not yet confirmed their attendance this fall, there was an overall -21 per cent year-over-year decline in the number of applicants.
This is a direct result of a -58 per cent decline in international applicants, although domestic applications were up +15 per cent.
Recent national media reports say that sector-wide, “it is the most dramatic decrease that they’ve ever seen in international enrolment. So our numbers are not out of whack with any other institution,” said Campbell.
He said other universities are also seeing an increase in interest among domestic students, “but we've seen a really dramatic increase here,” giving a shout-out to the registrar’s office for their work in that area.
Campbell said Laurentian has been working on “taking that interest and converting it to registrants,” doing simple things such as sending out letters right away to students who have confirmed they’re attending the university in the fall.
“So sometimes minor changes can have a big impact,” he said.
Taking into account these trends, Laurentian said it expects its overall enrolment for the 2025-2026 academic year, which includes both new and returning students, to decline by five per cent.
The university said that takes into account a +1 per cent increase in domestic enrolments and a -22 per cent decline in international enrolments, projections which it said are “conservative but realistic.”
The 2025-2026 budget approved by the university last month said Laurentian’s total projected student enrolment for 2025 is 6,040 full-time equivalent (FTE) students, a decrease from 6,332 actual enrolment in 2024.
(FTE is a calculation showing how many students would be attending if all were enrolled full time).
The decrease is driven entirely by reduced international student enrolment.
The 2025-2026 budget, with a projected surplus of $1.7 million, was developed with “prudence” and “caution,” given geopolitical factors including international student federal policy changes.
“This projected decline in international enrolment is not unique to Laurentian University,” said a report on enrolment presented at the April 25 meeting of Laurentian’s board of governors.
“The entire Canadian university sector is experiencing negative impacts on international enrolments due to federal policy changes, creating high variability and uncertainty in predicted impacts.”
However, the report said that due to the large returning pool of international graduate students, a $2.7 million increase in tuition revenue is projected over last year’s budgeted revenue of $67.3 million in the 2024-25 academic year.
As for enrolments during the 2025 winter term, Laurentian said that as of Feb. 1, it saw a two-per-cent decline year-over-year in FTE enrolment.
Domestic FTE enrolment during the 2025 winter term saw a year over year decline of -2 per cent, which is in line with the decline seen in the 2024 fall term, a result of new intake not large enough to offset the reduction in returning students.
International FTE enrolments during the 2025 winter term declined -4 per cent in comparison to last winter, contrasting the +14 per cent year over year increase in the fall of 2024, likely the preliminary impacts from the international policy changes.
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s assistant editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.