The federal government's recent decision to impose a cap on international student permits is poised to have profound effects on New Brunswick Community College (NBCC) and its student body, sparking concerns about enrollment trends and the wider community impact in New Brunswick.

In an interview with CHCO-TV, Mary Butler, NBCC's President and CEO, shed light on the hurdles posed by the cap. While NBCC is permitted to issue 2,794 attestation letters to potential students for 2024, there's no provision for additional allotments if some opt to study elsewhere. Butler flagged a critical issue: the provincial allocation, pegged to a national conversion rate of 60%, poses challenges for institutions like NBCC, which typically experience lower conversion rates within New Brunswick and the Maritimes. This shortfall could hinder NBCC's ability to meet labour market demands and support vital industries reliant on graduates.

"When we look at our international graduates, the vast majority of them are still here in the first year following graduation," said Butler. "And three years and later, almost half of them remain in New Brunswick, and are employed, and are part of our economic and social fabric of the province."

Butler underscored the pivotal role international students play in enriching NBCC's educational milieu, stimulating the local economy, and becoming part of the community post-graduation. She stressed the importance of international students in bridging job vacancies and fostering economic growth, citing the province's reliance on external recruitment to fill pressing workforce needs.

"We know from the provincial stats that the number of job vacancies is growing," said Butler. "As we have a huge wave of retirements and as industries are trying to grow, that replacement factor is about 133,000 job vacancies. And we can't fill that on New Brunswickers alone, which means we do need to recruit people from outside of the province. And we've had some in recent years from other parts of Canada, but we're really reliant on bringing international people into the province to help meet those needs."

Moreover, Butler highlighted collaborative efforts between the provincial government and post-secondary institutions to navigate the cap's ramifications.

"When our province looked at the allocation across institutions, which you can imagine is really complicated, complex, and there's a lot of factors to consider. They really focused in on enrollment that institutions had and alignment to the labour market, because, again, that's what's really important to the employers that we serve across the province, the industries that depend on all of our graduates to compete and to grow. So that's the good news. The challenge is that they're looking at a reduction across the board."