Canada Student Visa Program Will Get Facelift with Trusted Institutions

Canada is on the way to improvise its student visa program, adding the advantage of the Trusted Institutions tag. Currently, Canada has been experiencing a large number of student visa applications from international students. The modifications in the visa program are to deal with the issues with concrete plans and executions.

What is Canada’s New Trusted Institutions Framework?

In this new announcement from IRCC, the government has clarified that only Designated Learning Institutes (DLI) will accept the admissions of international students. Additionally, students must submit a Letter of Acceptance from the DLI institute during their study visa permit process.

The Parameters of the New Trusted Institutions 

In June 2023, IRCC first launched the new Trusted Institutions framework. A brief discussion was made with the selected peak bodies and stakeholders.

However, the concept of Trusted Institutions highlighted the balance between the current housing crisis and the number of international students applying to several Canadian educational institutions.

IRCC came with considering points after reviewing the International Students Program, which includes:

• Concerns about the safety of international students, especially some reports filed of exploitation or ill-treatment of visiting students
• The high volume of student visa applications
• The need for a diversified international student population

The Strategic Immigration Review structured the new concept of Trusted Institutions to deal with the accommodation crisis among global students in Canada. It’s the initiative that IRCC carry forward in the next Spring intake to eliminate the setback.

The Trusted Institutions - New Framework Accomplishment

Further, IRCC announced that at the beginning of 2024, Canada will divide the Designated Learning Institutes into two-tiered structures. According to the new framework, few DLIs will get the designation of Trusted Institutions.

The applicants to the new Trusted Institutions will receive an accelerated study visa process. There will be a time frame, and students will receive the visa acceptance letter within the scheduled period.

How to Determine the Trusted Institutions - Key Notes

As Canada is determined to modify the entire student visa structure by introducing the new Trusted Institutions, some prominent key elements determine which DLI will get the new tab.

In this process, IRCC will verify and cross-check data collected from IRCC portals and other government databases. The primary database will include the following information:

• Students applications
• Study permit approval rate
• Students from which countries and regions
• The ratio of successful post-graduate students
• Data on post-graduate students’ work permit
• Data on availing other IRCC program

After collecting and reviewing the above information, IRCC conducted an event in the town hall based on Invitation-only participants in early August 2023. Among many institutions, only 20 to 30 Canadian Institutions attended the data-collecting event.

The Data Gathering Pilot

The exercise was made to confirm the further survey and processing of the collected information. The participating institutions had to provide significant details to receive the invitations to the town hall event.

The additional data were:

Region, language, level of study, institution type and size, operational risk, post-graduation outcomes, etc.

Based on the processing of this information, IRCC will decide which designated learning institutions should get Trusted Institutions labeled and established.

In other words, if the data of a specific institution satisfies IRCC, it will be classified as a Trusted Institution.

The Purpose of the Remodelling of Student Visa Program

Canada’s Minister of Housing, Sean Fraser, and Minister of Immigration, Marc Miller, confirmed in a recent CBC interview that the country has been experiencing rapid growth in welcoming international students to universities and colleges for higher studies.

There is a need for proper planning and execution to deal with their accommodation on the university/college campuses.

Based on the international students’ arrival and stay up to completion of the program, students with work permits further help the government to allocate funds to establish new houses and increase the bed numbers in the existing housing inside the institute campuses.

Further, the extensive accommodations will drive affordability, which will help the institutions provide housing to the international students within their reach inside the campus.

Thus, the Trusted Institutions pilot will curb the housing crisis that currently Canada has been going through. Better and affordable accommodation will attract more students to Canada.

It will be beneficial both ways; students will get Canadian degrees and international staying experience, and the country will boost its economy through the gateway of the education sector.

The bottom line is the Designated Learning Institutions must come with the data of international students, the success ratio of completion of programs, and work permit volume to avail of fund allocations so that in the coming days, those institutions can receive more international students to provide quality education and accommodation facilities together.

However, there will be more announcements on the way based on housing capacity, student support, and graduate outcomes.

In a nutshell, Canada has been emerging as the epicenter of global study that can provide accommodation and other facilities to the growing numbers of international students.

For further IRCC updates on study permit, consult with Kansas Overseas Study visa experts!