Faced with tightening U.S. immigration policies, more and more students apply to Canadian art schools, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) narrates in Halifax Artnews Recently, this year it has seen more interest, application and acceptance.
As the Trump administration has put in place several new policies for international students, including threats to prevent Harvard from enrolling in international students, it announced it would “actively” start revoking visas for Chinese students and adding social media account comments to students and academics’ visas.
Over the past two decades, art schools in the United States have seen a sharp increase in international enrollment, and a decline in enrollment will change student groups at institutions such as the Savannah School of Art and Design and the School of Visual Arts.
However, in Canada, NSCAD attracted interest for the first time in December, shortly after Trump was elected as a second term.
“There is nearly 50% increase in potential customers compared to last year,” NSCAD President Dr Jana Macalik told NSCAD President Dr Jana Macalik. Artnews In April, it was pointed out that the rise included not only U.S. citizens, but also international students who have already studied in the country.
The most notable change is: U.S. applicants have a 220% peak in applicants for undergraduate programs in NSCAD in the fall of 2025, with an acceptance rate increasing by 186%, and a 66% increase in response to these offers.
While NSCAD usually attracts applicants from nearby East Coast states such as New York and Connecticut, Macalik said the university began receiving applications from all over the United States last December.
“Like 23 different states, this year, as far as applicants are concerned,” McAllic said. “People are really finding us.”
According to Macalik, student feedback clearly shows what is driving a surge in interest and wider geographical differences.
“They are really because of trans experiences, disability, same-sex marriage, women’s rights – the kind of component of freedom in the United States are all the concerns of these students,” MacAlik said. “In the United States, the fear of persecution is making them want to go elsewhere, of course, if they are international students, even from American students.”
Like many art schools, the NSCAD community includes many non-binary, queer, transgender and neurotic members who also seek mental health support. The school also heard the voices of parents directly.
MacAlik said parents “want their students to come to a school that will adapt, support and expressively in a way that supports the interests of these students in the arts,” MacAlik said, Nova Scotia has the highest gender diversity among the ages of 15 to 30 compared to other Canadian provinces.
Macalik added that the NSCAD recruitment team noted that the latest figures from U.S. applicants outweigh the interest of Chinese students, which is usually the largest source of international inquiries for the institution.
These figures for NSCAD are also associated with increasing number of students in the United States applying or expressing interest in Canadian universities such as the University of Toronto, the University of British Columbia and the University of Waterloo. Reuters The report was released on April 15.
A spokesperson for the University of Scarborough (UTSC) in Toronto also told Artnews The institution “in recent years during the 2025-26 academic year, it has seen meaningful applications from potential American students, including UTSC’s Visual and Performing Arts, Art Management and Media Programs (students choose their primary art history, media management, etc. after their first year.”
The Alberta University of the Arts (AUARTS) in Calgary, Alberta has more than double the traffic between January and April between January and April compared to the same period last year.
“After the election, it went crazy. It went crazy completely, it went crazy upwards,” said student Dr. Pablo Ortiz. Artnews In late April, it was noted that a lot of network traffic came from Washington, Oregon, California, New Mexico and Texas. “We are considering doing more work to raise awareness of the U.S. short-distance U.S. market in 2025 and 2026, but it will certainly see the impact of the campaign until this time next year,” Ortiz added.
Ultra actually saw it decline A spokesperson told Artnews“The combined impact of the Canadian federal government’s international student cap and we have reduced U.S. national recruitment efforts over the past year, instead focusing on increasing recruitment in western Canada.”
In 2024, Immigration Canada, Refugee and Citizenship, limits new international student licensing to 360,000, a 35% decrease from the previous year. The cap is designed to manage population growth, with individual provincial and territorial restrictions being weighted by population.
However, Alberta is allowed to recognize more international students in 2024 than in 2023, while Nova Scotia allocates international students for NSCAD to 13% to 53 students in 2024.
But Ortiz told CBC News Auarts didn’t hit the ceiling because the new federal regulations feared many international students to apply, thus “having a shocking impact on potential applicants in other countries, which they interpreted as ocean changes that Canada sees as foreign students.”
Ortiz told ArtnewsIt was down 26% in international applications, down 50% from the U.S. to 30% in the U.S. to 30% in all our admissions. “Basically, what we’re going to say is that Canada no longer welcomes international students.”
He added: “In view of recent events, we are considering doing more work in the 2025-26 recruitment campaign to raise awareness of the U.S. short-distance market, but we won’t see this impact until this time next year.”
In the short term, Auarts expects more applicants to take on their faculty and administrative positions, such as the posting of Vice President Academic positions in April. “I think we’re sure to see a flood of talent in this country,” Ortiz said.
