Tag: expanded

  • PGWP eligibility expanded for college degree students

    PGWP eligibility expanded for college degree students

    Canada’s college sector has welcomed a recent policy change from the IRCC stating that graduates of college degree programs will now join university students in being exempted from PGWP field of study requirements announced in October 2024.  

    At the time, the IRCC updated the eligibility criteria for students applying for a post-graduation work permit, allowing only college graduates from certain fields of study to apply for a PGWP, thus putting the college sector at a severe disadvantage.  

    The most recent revision has been hailed as a rare piece of good news for Canadian colleges, which stakeholders warned were at risk of being “decimated” by the IRCC’s eligibility criteria.  

    Conestoga College senior vice-president Gary Hallam said the decision was an “important step forward” for the sector, acknowledging “the excellence of our academic programming and the essential role colleges play in ensuring graduates have the skills and knowledge needed for success in today’s workforce”.

    “We are particularly pleased our international students will now benefit from the breadth of our programming,” added Hallam, highlighting Conestoga’s 25 degree programs offering a blend of theory and hands-on practical learning.

    The change applies to students who applied for a study permit after November 1, 2024, to pursue a college bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree program.  

    Coupled with other restrictions, the field of study requirements were already having a dramatic impact on Canadian institutions, with new international college enrolments seeing a 60% decline in 2024, triggering a stream of course closures and layoffs felt hardest in Ontario.  

    The IRCC’s decision… acknowledges the essential role colleges play in ensuring graduates have the skills and knowledge needed for success in today’s workforce

    Gary Hallam, Conestoga College

    The English and French language requirements announced last year remain in place for all PGWP applicants, and non-degree students will still have to meet the field of study requirements intended to foster greater alignment between education and labour-market needs.  

    Earlier this year, the IRCC added education as an eligible field of study reflecting labour market shortages across the regions in areas such as early childhood education, teaching assistance and childcare provision.  

    Despite some confusion regarding the wording of the IRCC’s guidance, the Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE) confirmed the change, and that the department was working to update its website.  

    Since January 2024, the IRCC has stepped up scrutiny of international student recruitment at Canadian institutions, capping international student numbers with the aim of reducing temporary residents from 6.5% of Canada’s total population to 5% by the end of 2026.

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  • Trump’s transgender sports ban challenged in expanded New Hampshire lawsuit

    Trump’s transgender sports ban challenged in expanded New Hampshire lawsuit

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    Dive Brief:

    • Two transgender high school athletes are challenging in federal court President Donald Trump’s Feb. 5 executive order banning transgender girls and women from participating in sports aligned with their gender identity.
    • Originally filed against a New Hampshire state law that bars transgender girls in grades 5-12 from playing school sports, the lawsuit filed by Parker Tirrell and Iris Turmelle, is expanding to include Trump and the federal departments of justice and education among the defendants.
    • Tirrell and Turmelle, represented by GLAD Law and the ACLU of New Hampshire, allege Trump’s executive order is discriminatory and violates their federal equal protection guarantees under the 14th Amendment and their rights under Title IX. 

    Dive Insight:

    Henry Klementowicz, deputy legal director at ACLU of NH, said in a Wednesday statement that every child in the state deserves “a right to equal opportunities at school.”

    “We’re expanding our lawsuit to challenge President Trump’s executive orders because, like the state law, it excludes, singles out, and discriminates against transgender students and insinuates that they are not deserving of the same educational opportunities as all other students,” Klementowicz said. 

    The U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire previously ordered in September that the two students could play sports on teams corresponding with their gender identities while Tirrell and Turmelle v. Edelblut advanced. 

    Trump’s “No Men in Women’s Sports” executive order, which is now being targeted by the lawsuit, calls for a recission of all federal funds from educational programs that allow transgender girls and women to participate in girls’ sports. The order also directs the U.S. secretary of education to zero in on Title IX enforcement against K-12 schools and colleges where girls and women are required “to compete with or against or to appear unclothed before males.”

    The day after Trump issued that executive order, the U.S. Department of Education opened Title IX investigations into a middle and high school athletics association in Massachusetts, as well as two universities, on the basis that they allowed transgender girls and women to play on teams aligned with their gender identity. 

    Trump’s order further directs the U.S. Department of Justice to abide by the nationwide vacatur from a recent court order by a federal judge who struck down the Biden administration’s Title IX rule in January. The Biden-era Title IX rule was the first time protections were codified for LGBTQI+ students and employees at federally funded schools under the anti-sex discrimination law. 

    After that January court decision, the Education Department said it would enforce the Title IX regulations finalized in 2020 during the first Trump administration.

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