Ontario the second largest and most -populous province of Canada, hosts over half of all international students. In a recent update, the Ontario Government has announced substantial funding of CA$ 1.3 billion for public colleges and universities which will be spent on developing a better higher education system in Ontario, Canada for international students.

Minister Jill Dunlop stressed the importance of attracting talented students to Ontario, saying “We are protecting the integrity of our province’s post-secondary education system by attracting the best and brightest international students to study in Canada’s Ontario in areas that are critical to our economy.”

For this, Canada's immigration department has allocated 235,000 study permit applications to Ontario. Among these, 96% of applications will go to public colleges and universities. While the remaining 4% will be received by private institutions. This shows Ontario's focus on strengthening its public education system.

Under this plan, 22 of Ontario's 23 universities and 11 out of 24 public colleges will keep their study permit applications at 2023 levels. This means they won't be largely affected by the cap set by IRCC earlier this year. The allocation of applications to individual institutions will be based on the following criteria,