In the 2020/2021 academic year, the COVID-19 pandemic became a major disruption in colleges and universities across the country, with most institutions cancelling in-person classes and moving to virtual learning. Public health restrictions along with domestic and international border crossing limits had an impact on the Canadian postsecondary system.
Enrolments in public colleges and universities decreased slightly in 2020/2021; they dropped by 0.6% from 2019/2020, to just under 2.2 million students. This decrease was attributable largely to lower college enrolments (-5.0%) for both Canadian (-23,922 or -3.7%) and international (-11,385 or -7.4%) college students.
