As our team reported earlier this month, the number of new Canadian study permits approved for post-secondary students fell 64% in 2025. What that headline number did not show was the uneven shape of the year, and the uneven study permit1 approval rates across different study levels and fields of study. For example, when we look at full-year 2025 data, new post-secondary study permit approval rates ranged from under 11% for vocational students to nearly 79% for doctorate programs.2
Key Insights at a Glance
- Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) approved 36% of new Canadian post-secondary study permit applications in 2025, which was nearly 10 percentage points below the 2024 average.
- University-level bachelor’s programs were the only post-secondary level with a higher study permit approval rate (52%) in 2025 than 2024. They, along with postgraduate university programs, were the only study levels to gain share of all study permit approvals.
- Student visa approval rates for college applicants dropped from 49% in 2024 to just 27% in 2025.
- In 2025, the proportion of new student visa approvals among different fields of study ranged from 3% for students entering trades/vocational programs to 30% for students entering engineering and technology programs.
Post-Secondary Study Permit Approval Rates Varied Considerably in 2025
The approval rate for post-secondary study permits in 2025 did not follow a linear trajectory. That said, the rising approval rates through the first half of the year looks similar to how approval rates evolved through early 2023, albeit at a much lower average approval rate:
In 2025, new study permit approval rates began the year at just 22%, climbed steadily through the spring and early summer, spiked at 56% in August, and then averaged in the low 30s from September through December. Ultimately, the full-year 2025 visa approval rate for new post-secondary applicants was 36%. This is considerably lower than the full-year approval rate in 2024, which was 45%, and over twenty percentage points lower than 2023’s study permit approval rate for this cohort (58%).
The H1 2025 lift in approval rates reversed in the fall and winter, and ended up looking similar to Q4 2024 averages. This dip in approval rates late in the year is important, as the first eight months of 2025 suggested a return to higher approval rates that the full year didn’t deliver. That said, post-secondary study permit approval rates in December 2025 were five percentage points higher than they were in December 2024, and this improvement has continued into 2026. For example, January 2026’s study permit approval rate was 32%, compared to 22% in January 2024, marking a strong positive change of 10 percentage points year-over-year.
If we treat the approval rate spike in August 2025 as an anomaly, the delta between July and September 2025’s study permit approval rates is only 10 percentage points. This difference fits between the July-August dip in 2023 (a 6 percentage point drop) and the August-September dip in 2024 (down 13 percentage points). This suggests that the study permit approval rate may continue to stabilize, versus the downward trajectory we saw in 2024. Forward-looking academic institutions can use this stabilization as a foundation to build more targeted 2026 recruitment strategies.
Program Level Was a Defining Divider
The variance among study permit approval rates by level of study widened sharply in 2025. Approval rates for new Canadian study permits at the post-secondary level ranged from 11% for students applying to vocational programs to 52% for university undergraduate programs in 2025. College (27%) and postgraduate university programs (47%) approval rates landed in the middle of this range.3
These evolving study permit approval rates also influenced the overall proportion of study permit approvals issued to students enrolled in different post-secondary study levels:
The composition of the post-secondary study permit approval pool shifted materially between 2022 and 2025. Degree-granting programs saw their proportion of study permit approvals improve over 2024, where the proportion of approvals to students entering college and vocational programs shrank year-over-year. From 2022 through 2023, students entering college programs accounted for roughly two out of every three new post-secondary visa approvals. By 2025, applicants to college, university – undergraduate, and university – postgraduate programs each held between one-quarter and one-third of the visa approvals.
This rebalancing highlights a clear signal鈥擟anada’s international student cap and the federal focus on programs tied to long-term economic contribution have contributed to the assessment of program fit during the study permit application process. In many cases, student visa applications with a clearer path to graduate study, or recognized long-term labour market outcomes were approved more consistently. Meanwhile, study permit applications to shorter post-secondary programs were approved less often.
Proportion of Study Permit Approvals to Business Students Dipped in 2025
The proportion of study permit approvals received by applicants to different fields of study also changed notably in 2025:
The proportion of visa approvals to Business, Management, and Economics applicants declined the most in 2025. After holding between 46% and 48% of post-secondary approvals from 2022 to 2024, Business study permit applicants received only 27% of approvals in 2025, and had an overall study permit approval rate of 31%. The compression was concentrated in the Business Management and the Marketing and Business Commerce sub-fields, which are the largest sub-fields in this field of study.
Engineering and Technology strengthened as the rest of the pool contracted. Engineering held roughly a quarter of approvals through 2022, 2023, and 2024, then rose to 29% in 2025. However, its gain didn’t come from volume expansion. Visa approval rates fell across most fields in 2025, but Engineering and Technology fell less steeply, from 44% in 2024 to 36% in 2025, so its share of the smaller pool of approvals grew accordingly. Computing and IT, Applied Sciences, and Architecture were the sub-fields within Engineering and Technology that held their weight most durably.
Meanwhile, the Arts, Humanities, and Social Science field roughly doubled their share of visa approvals. The Arts bucket moved from 10% of approvals in 2024 to 20% in 2025. As with engineering and technology, this is indicative of these fields’ study permit approval rate resilience. The total number of post-secondary student visa approvals fell sharply year-over-year, which meant applicants to fields with steadier approval rates received a larger proportion of total approvals. Because applicants to Arts, Humanities, and Social Science programs had an average approval rate of 48%,4 which was closer to 2023 levels than most other fields, their share of study permit approvals in 2025 reflected that durability.
Science program applicants benefitted from the steadiest visa approval rates, remaining stable year-over-year at 56%. The Sciences bucket grew from roughly 1% of student visa approvals in 2022 to 8% in 2025. As such, institutions with meaningful program depth in general sciences entered 2026 on firmer ground than most of the sector. General Sciences and Agriculture program applicants were approved at rates well above the post-secondary average in every year noted above.
The proportion of approvals to students in Health Sciences and Medicine programs held roughly flat year-over-year, lifting from 9% to 11%. Biomedical and Medicine sub-fields had similar approval rates to 2024, while the larger Health Sciences sub-field fell. Overall, the 2025 study permit approval rate for Health Sciences and Medicine was 31%.
Lastly, students entering Trades and Vocational programs received less than 3% of study permit approvals between 2022 and 2025. This field had the lowest study permit approval rate of any field in 2025, at 19%.
The 2025 data shows that last year, students applying to university programs and scientific fields had a clear advantage when it came to applying for a study permit. In contrast, applying to business credentials or shorter programs was less likely to be successful. While not prescriptive, this shift aligns with Canada’s physical economy needs, particularly in the sectors that sustained strong study permit approval rates. For instance, the health care and social assistance sector saw a 49% increase in job vacancies versus 2019. This highlights an opportunity for institutions to more closely align international student interest with demand for talent in such priority sectors.
Clear Academic Pathways Lead to Successful Student Recruitment Outcomes
The 2025 study permit data also reinforces that applicants with a clear academic path are more likely to receive study permit approvals. Applicants with a chosen program which continued their prior study or career history had higher success rates. For example, a master’s after a bachelor’s is a clear path. As we noted in a recent webinar, the applicants with the highest approval rates are those whose Statement of Purpose makes the link between their study history, their work history, and their chosen program explicit.
This serves as a strategic blueprint for institutions looking to optimize their enrolment outcomes. By focusing on applicants who are aligned with program demand and long-term labour market needs, institutions can proactively refine their portfolio weighting to prioritize those credentials鈥攕uch as university degrees and applied sciences鈥攖hat have historically stronger approval rates.
This trend requires institutions to apply the same outcomes-focused scrutiny upstream: identifying and guiding applicants toward programs where their documented trajectory is strongest. 老九品茶 facilitates this strategic alignment, leveraging proprietary data to surface essential profile-to-program fit signals earlier in the funnel. Curious about how our team can support your institution’s international recruitment strategies? Reach out to our Commercial Partnerships team today.
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FOOTNOTES:
1. The terms student visa and study permit are generally used interchangeably for Canadian international students. Rather than student visas, Canada provides accepted international students with study permits, which allow those students to enrol in classes at Canadian institutions. When a student is accepted for a study permit, they are also usually provided with a visitor visa, which allows that student to enter Canada for their studies. In this article, we鈥檒l use the terms interchangeably.
2. All data is sourced from (IRCC) unless otherwise noted.
3. Figures reflect IRCC operational data extracted March 23, 2026, and are subject to minor revision.
4. For the study permit approval rate for Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, we have combined the study permit approvals for the Arts and the Law, Politics, Social, and Teaching sectors.
