The wildly fluctuating price of tuition

On a sunny Tuesday morning, Jean-Mari Hattingh, a fourth-year student from South Africa in the Law, Justice and Society program at Dalhousie University, silences her alarm at 8 a.m., rolls out of bed, quickly freshens up, and leaves home with an energy bar in hand. Eating while walking, she heads for her first dog walk of the day.

Depending on the day, Hattingh will dash home to prepare for class or spend the next two or three hours with more dogs. Most days after classes, she’ll walk more dogs, go to field hockey practice, squeeze in dinner and do homework until 11 p.m. Lying down on her bed, she’ll scroll through her phone for 20 minutes before falling asleep. On her busiest days, she does all of this and works as a server at a restaurant.

“My schedule is very meticulous,” Hattingh said. “But I just don’t have time for myself.”

Hattingh is this busy because she has to work hard to afford the high tuition fees and living costs as an international student in Canada.

Hattingh is not alone. Canada has witnessed such a rapid increase in the number of international students in the past decade that the federal government recently capped the number allowed into the country.

The rise of international students in Canada

Over one million international students currently hold valid study permits in Canada, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Canada has become the third most popular destination for international students – after the United States and the United Kingdom – welcoming more than 520,000 international students for post-secondary education in 2023. In 2021-2022, the most recent year for which statistics are available, international students represented just over 18 per cent of Canada’s total enrolments, a jump from 7.2 per cent in 2010-2011.

The majority of international students choose Canada because it is known as “a safe, stable and tolerant country,” according to a survey conducted by the Canadian Bureau for International Education in 2021. Canada creates a “welcoming” experience for international students as “multiculturalism is baked into Canadian society,” explained Graham Barber, assistant director of international relations at Universities Canada, a non-profit national organization representing Canadian universities.

The extremely high standard of education in Canada also attracts many international students, Barber said. Canadian universities consistently rank among the top in the world.

While Canada is attractive to international students, those students fill gaps in the Canadian workforce, according to a 2021 report by the Office of the Auditor General of Ontario.

Barber agrees. He said they bring valuable skills to Canada, including language proficiency and adaptability. Governments view them as crucial temporary labour sources and a significant stream of economic immigrants, according to Lisa Brunner, postdoctoral research fellow, Centre for Migration Studies at University of British Columbia.

A 2021 StatCan report illustrated the Canadian government's growing recognition of international students as a valuable source of technical expertise for the country's labour market.

One major recruitment strategy is facilitating work opportunities and providing different pathways to immigration, such as the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) Program and the Post-Graduation Work Permit Program (PGWPP), according to Brunner. The CEC program helps skilled foreign workers, who have at least one year of full-time work experience in Canada, to immigrate. The PGWPP allows international students to obtain a work permit for up to three years after they complete their studies and transition to permanent residency.

More than 60 per cent of international students who obtained a study permit in 2015 were still residing in Canada five years after graduation, according to data released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2022.

High international tuition fees

Globally, 10 per cent of all students who study internationally do so in Canada; those students face challenges over and above those experienced by domestic students, most notably related to funding their education.

StatCan data shows that in the current academic year, international undergraduates are paying an average of $40,114 in tuition, while Canadian domestic students are paying $7,360. International students are now paying five times more and have seen a jump of 34 per cent in the cost of their tuition in the past six years.

Hattingh, a South African citizen who was previously educated in both her home country and China, wanted to see more of the world. Having heard about Canada’s renowned education, she decided to attend Dalhousie University in Halifax. Hattingh’s parents pay for her $30,000 tuition each year. Hattingh says she still has to work 40 hours per week during the school year to cover her living expenses and support her brother, who also attends university in Halifax.

Charging international students much more than domestic students is not unique to Canada. In the United States, the average tuition at public four-year institutions in 2024-2025 was US$30,780 per year for internationals versus US$11,610 for state residents, according to 2024 data from the College Board, a non-profit educational organization.

In the United Kingdom, fees for UK and EU students are “capped by law,” while international student fees are not, explained Norm Kemp, senior media and communications officer at the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), a UK governmental organization responsible for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating data about higher education institutions and students.

The average cost for international students is approximately £22,200 [about $37,790 Cdn] per year, according to the British Council. “The current fee cap for UK domicile undergraduates is £9,250 [about $15,750 Cdn] per year,” Kemp said.

Dreams deferred

International student tuition at Dalhousie University is low relative to other Canadian universities, according to a report from Dalhousie this year. During the 2024-25 academic year, international students at Dalhousie will pay $33,814 to enroll in an arts program. In comparison, international students pay $61,720 at the University of Toronto, and $47,189.4 at the University of British Columbia.

Hattingh says that despite the lower tuition fees at Dalhousie, she has to delay her dream of studying law after her undergraduate degree because it will place too big a financial burden on her parents. For that reason, Hattingh plans to apply for law school after she works for a few years, saves money and obtains her permanent residency status.

Hattingh isn’t shy to speak out about the high tuition fees she and her brother are paying. Last year, at a think tank session the Dalhousie Budget Advisory Committee held with students to discuss the university’s budget plan, Hattingh directly asked the committee members why Canadian students pay so much less than international students. The answer she heard from the committee was that each Canadian student benefits from a $10,000 government subsidy.

“It's just not fair,” Hattingh said. “I think they see us as a cash cow.”

Provincial and territorial governments handle education and decide which colleges and universities can accept international students. Each school sets its own tuition fees following guidelines, an IRCC spokesperson said.

According to a 2024-2025 operating budget report from Dalhousie, the provincial government grant it receives dropped to 42 per cent in 2024-2025 from 46.9 per cent in 2020-2021.

Both domestic and international tuition at Dalhousie have increased by up to three per cent each year for over the past 10 years, according to Dalhousie spokesperson Janet Bryson.

The Dalhousie Operating Budget Report, released in March 2024, indicates that the rate increase for domestic students has been lowered to two per cent for 2024-2025, but increased to 7.2 per cent for international students who are not part of Dalhousie’s new International Student Tuition Guarantee. Under this arrangement, students who started their studies in the fall of 2023 or later and who are enrolled in certain programs will see their tuition unchanged for the duration of their study.

To help offset tuition increases, Bryson said Dalhousie continues to make significant investments in student financial support. The 2023-2024 budget included $1.7 million more in student assistance, including an allocation to support international students under the International Student Tuition Guarantee. Dalhousie currently spends nearly $82 million each year on student assistance. The Dalhousie Operating Budget Report 2024-2025 did not mention any additional budget allocated to support international students.

Burnout

During the summer when Hattingh takes two to three courses instead of her regular five-course load, she says she increases her work hours to 70 per week. Though she is used to juggling a lot of things, she says she gets headaches more often due to the increased pressure and long hours.

“I can get burnt out really quickly, but I just have to keep going.”

She journals her thoughts and emotions because it’s helpful and she also sees a therapist once a month to help maintain her mental health.

The federal government initiated a pilot program in November 2022, removing the limit on the off-campus work hours for international students in order to help respond to a national labour shortage, according to IRCC.

However, that program ended early in 2024 and international students were once again limited to working up to 20 hours per week. The reasoning behind the limitation was to ensure that international students understand they come to Canada “to study, not work,” an IRCC spokesperson said.

Hattingh thinks it's unfair to offer the opportunity to work without limitations on hours to international students and then take it back, especially when her grades have never been negatively impacted by her work. With the tuition increased again by 7.2 per cent for the year 2024-2025, life has become even harder for her.

In January 2024, the federal government announced its decision to cap the number of new international student permits issued for the next two years to ensure that Canadian communities are well equipped to welcome them.

According to an IRCC statement released in September, 485,000 new study permits were approved in 2024, a decrease of 35 per cent from 2023. The reduction in international student study permits is expected to continue in 2025, with the IRCC lowering the intake cap by 10 per cent from 2024, bringing the number down to 437,000 for 2025, a number the government says it will hold stead for 2026.

Graham Barber, assistant director of international relations at Universities Canada, discusses the announced cap on the number of new international student permits in 2024.

Now, Canada is one of the fastest-growing destination countries for international students, according to a briefing note the Department of Finance obtained in 2024 through a federal access-to-information request.

Given this rapid growth, the number of international students in Canada has become “unsustainable,” an IRCC spokesperson said.

The cap was implemented to also better protect international students and maintain the reputation of Canada’s education, an IRCC spokesperson said. Many schools are “taking advantage” of them and “offering them a substandard credential in order to charge them higher fees,” Barber explained.

One possible impact from the cap is that universities will increase international student fees to balance decreased revenues as a result of fewer students, Brunner said.

Hattingh also assumes that the rate of tuition increase has risen to 7.2 per cent due to the “insane” cap.

If her tuition was lower, Hattingh says, “I would quit one of my jobs.” She would not have to save as much money and her parents could set extra money aside for her to go to law school. She would have more time to study, socialize, and relax.

“I wouldn't have to be on my feet the entire day,” she said. “Now, I'm very, very busy.”

About the author

Sherry Mei