The number of French students in Canada has increased fivefold in 20 years, climbing from around 5,000 in 2,000 to 23,850 in 2023. That makes them the fifth most represented nationality among international students in Canada today. The vast majority of them, 16,000, study at Québec universities.
What's driving this increase? What motivates French citizens to pursue their studies in Canada? What factors influence the path they choose to follow after university, and what benefits do they get from the experience?
These are the questions we sought to answer in a research project carried out in 2023 and 2024 in collaboration with the French Embassy in Canada. Our research was based on an online survey of 219 French students and graduates in Canada (75 per cent in Québec and 22 per cent in Ontario), as well as 30 qualitative interviews.
