Nova Scotia·NewAs Nova Scotia universities contend with the financial implications of a 37.5 per cent drop in international student enrolment, the advanced education minister says they should not expect additional money from the provincial government to help cover any shortfalls.International student enrolment dropped 37.5 per cent year over yearMichael Gorman · CBC News · Posted: Oct 16, 2025 2:50 PM EDT | Last Updated: 41 minutes agoNova Scotia Advanced Education Minister Brendan Maguire says universities will have to work within their existing budgets to deal with the effects of international student enrolment drops. (Patrick Callaghan/CBC)As Nova Scotia universities contend with the financial implications of a 37.5 per cent drop in international student enrolment, the advanced education minister says they should not expect additional money from the provincial government to help cover any shortfalls.“Our message has been very clear: we signed a bilateral agreement with them, they know the terms and conditions and the finances that are in that bilateral agreement and that’s what we’re going to stick to over the next two years,” Brendan Maguire told reporters in Halifax on Thursday.Maguire was responding the day after new data from the Association of Atlantic Universities showed that every university in Nova Scotia has experienced a year-over-year decline in the number of students coming from outside Canada to study in this province.Those declines range from a low end of 8.0 and 8.9 per cent at Acadia University and NSCAD University, respectively, to a high end of 56.1 per cent at Cape Breton University and 40.3 per cent at St. Francis Xavier University. Five other universities experienced declines between 20 and 25 per cent.Maguire said he’s concerned about the drop, but said it should not come as a surprise given a two-year cap on student permits the federal government announced last year.“We knew that was going to happen once the federal government [changed] their policy.”The minister noted that universities in the province are well below the allowable cap on international students and he said officials in his department are working with university and federal officials to find ways to encourage more students on visas to look at Nova Scotia as a place to continue their studies.“We’re willing to do whatever we can to ensure that these universities are viable and if it means increasing international students, we’ll do everything in our power to make sure that they get them.”The two-year agreements all universities signed with the Nova Scotia government earlier this year include funding increases of two per cent in each year of the deal.MORE TOP STORIESABOUT THE AUTHORMichael Gorman covers the Nova Scotia legislature for CBC, with additional focuses on health care and rural communities. Contact him with story ideas at michael.gorman@cbc.ca
Minister says there won’t be extra money for N.S. universities to offset enrolment drops
