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October 05, 2026POSTSECONDARY ENROLMENTS 2024/2025 Total postsecondary enrolment declined 2.4% Nova Scotia in 2024/2025, pulled down by a decline university enrolment (-3.4%) offsetting growth in college enrolment (+2.0%). Canada experienced marginal growth in total enrolment (+0.1%), with growth in university enrolment (+0.3%) offsetting a decline in college enrolment (-0.1%). Enrolment into post secondary education declined in 5 provinces with Prince Edward Island recording the largest decline and Alberta reporting the largest gain in postsecondary enrolments.
In Nova Scotia, there was a decline of international students enrolling into postsecondary education while there were more Canadian residents in 2024/2025. With the new federal regulations, postsecondary enrolments declined for international students across Canada (-6.9%) with exceptions of Québec, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Domestic students in Canada grew by 2.1%.
In Nova Scotia, there were more Canadian residents enrolling into postsecondary education compared to international students in both universities and collages. In 2024/2025 about a quarter of students enrolled into university were international, but a noticeable drop from the previous year. Over the past 5 years, there has been little fluctuation in Canadian residents attending post secondary education while there has been more change in international students attending university.
In Nova Scotia, international student enrolment declined across all programs of study as well as university degrees, except Doctoral STEM program and those not in International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED). Enrolment into non-ISCED greatly increased for Canadian residents (although small values are more sensitive to change). Canadian enrollment in Nova Scotia was up for bachelor’s and master’s degrees, while declined for doctoral.
Statistics Canada. Table 37-10-0086-01 Postsecondary enrolments, by status of student in Canada, country of citizenship and gender; Table 37-10-0163-01 Postsecondary enrolments, by International Standard Classification of Education, institution type, Classification of Instructional Programs, STEM and BHASE groupings, status of student in Canada, age group and gender
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