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By Wa Lone and Promit Mukherjee
TORONTO/OTTAWA (Reuters) - More students living in the United States are applying to Canadian universities or expressing interest in studying north of the border as U.S. President Donald Trump cuts federal funding to universities and revokes foreign student visas.
Officials at the University of British Columbia's Vancouver campus said the school reported a 27% jump in graduate applications as of March 1 from U.S. citizens for programs starting in the 2025 academic year, compared to all of 2024.
In response to rising demand for graduate-level programs, UBC Vancouver briefly reopened admissions to U.S. citizens for several graduate programs this week with plans to fast-track applications from American students hoping to begin studies in September.
University of Toronto, Canada's largest university by number of students, also reported more U.S. applications by its January deadline for 2025 programs, while a University of Waterloo spokesperson reported an increase in U.S. visitors to campus and more web traffic originating from the United States since September.
The universities in Toronto and Waterloo did not cite the reasons for the increase in interest, while the UBC's Vancouver campus attributed the rise to the Trump administration's policies.
The administration has frozen hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for numerous universities, pressing them to make policy changes and citing what it says is a failure to fight antisemitism on campus. It has begun deportation proceedings against some detained foreign students who took part in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, while visas for hundreds of other students have been canceled - actions that have raised concerns about speech and academic freedoms in the U.S.
At the same time, Canada has capped the number of international students allowed to enter the country for the second year in a row, meaning there may be fewer spots for U.S. and other international students.
Canada's immigration ministry said it expects learning institutions to only accept the number of students they can support, including providing housing options. Provinces and territories are responsible for distributing spaces under the cap, the ministry said.
US CRACKDOWN
Gage Averill, UBC Vancouver’s provost and vice president of academics, attributed the spike in U.S. applications to the Trump administration abruptly revoking visas of foreign students and increased scrutiny of their social media activity.
"That, as a result, and especially as a result of the very recent crackdown on visas in the United States for international students, and now the development of a center that's reading foreign students' social media accounts," Averill said.
The University of Toronto, considered an alternative to U.S. Ivy League schools, is seeing a "meaningful increase" in applications from those living or studying in the U.S. over previous years, the university said in a statement.
University of Waterloo, which is known for its technical graduate programs and churns out top-notch engineering talent, said some faculties including engineering have seen increased interest and applications from students in the U.S.
"We have seen an increase in U.S. visitors to the UW Visitors Centre on campus, and web traffic that originates in the U.S. has increased by 15% since September 2024," a University of Waterloo spokesperson said.
It did not specify whether these students were foreign students studying in the U.S. or American citizens.
Averill said UBC has seen only a modest 2% increase in undergraduate applications for this year's programs, which closed around the time of Trump’s inauguration. However, interest appears to be growing, with campus tour requests from U.S. students up by 20%.
"We were concerned about the United States universities, our sister institutions in the U.S., who are under enormous pressure right now," said Averill, referring in particular to the Trump administration's efforts to withhold funds from universities that continue with diversity and equity initiatives or study climate science.
According to UBC's annual report, the United States ranks as one of the top three countries for international student enrollment. Currently, about 1,500 U.S. students are enrolled in both graduate and undergraduate programs at the university's two campuses.
(Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Deepa Babington)
