I understand that the government Doesn't work for international students. But if you have less universities and more number of colleges, it is natural that most students who are applying for student visa will be enrolled in colleges. So why refuse on the basis of that.
It’s not a university-college dichotomy per se. For instance, those who want to do a degree will apply to a university and those who would prefer a diploma or certificate are more likely to apply to colleges.
Now universities have higher entry standards than colleges on average , and that is prima facie evidence of the applicant’s academic ability , and that is more likely the case with bonafide students
And again, if Canada has a smaller number of universities in *absolute* terms, per capita it’s still almost on par with the U.K. and the US ( which I suppose you’re using as a comparison metric ) if a student wants to apply to a university , nobody is stopping them
But the issue is that students only apply to colleges because they’re easy to get in , and this also answers your question about higher rejection rates. Because a lot of these students are ‘bogus students’ . I would like you to take a look at what happened in the U.K. before 2010, it was pretty much the same
The U.K. and the US have lower rejection rates than Canada because most international students going to those two countries attend universities , which in Canada they attend colleges which primarily cater to international students and are used by students as a platform to enter Canada and obtain permanent residence ( therefore studying not being the primary purpose , and therefore being refused on those grounds )
Hope that answers