Following the high-profile closure of the EC network came no less shocking news: on September 18, Canada's ILAC Education Group announced that it was ceasing operations. Both companies had been considered the largest and most recognizable players in the market for decades: EC operated for 35 years, ILAC for about 30 years.
In Canada itself, the scale of the problem is even bigger than after the closure of EC: European Centers hosts 471 students, while ILAC still has more than 1,800 people «on its books». The nuance is that ILAC Education Group is not just language schools and camps, but also schools with career and corporate programs (ILAC International College), with adult students and long-term courses.
The news of the closure came as a surprise both to students and their families, and to staff, and to education agents and other partners. Students who worked through agencies are now in a more stable position compared to those who applied on their own and directly, since they have partner support, help with documents, and communication with the education provider.
What led to the closure?
The group explained the decision by financial pressure that had been building up over three years, and by «significant regulatory changes» affecting the sector. In 2019, the private equity firm ONCAP acquired a majority stake in the company, and starting in 2020 ILAC began actively developing public-private partnerships: it became a partner of Georgian College in Toronto, partnered with Fanshawe College (a new campus even opened), and acquired Tamwood College. In 2024, ILAC expanded its online school ILAC KISS and bought out the online recruitment platform for international students, UniApplyNow.
However, in early 2024 the Canadian government set limits on the number of study permits for international students and updated the terms of the popular Post-Graduation Work Permit program. The changes affected the education market very quickly, as early as September 2024. ILAC kept fighting, increasing its scale, but simple scaling «by numbers» didn't bring the desired results.
Geographic details also started to take their toll. The number of international students in Canada declined, so only the major cities and provincial centers — Toronto and Vancouver — stayed «afloat», while the other regions lost much of their appeal for academic migration. Centers in these cities began to suffer from a shortage of students and constant cost optimization.
A warning sign for the market
The closure of such major players in the education market worries everyone. Experts are considering which model will now prove more resilient:
- A large operator with a wide network of schools: on its side are major investments, a well-known name, no problems hiring professional teachers, and a fast response to innovations and new approaches (large providers often develop new textbooks, materials, and class formats themselves, which are later adopted by other schools),
- Independent centers. True, they don't have as many campuses or loud marketing, but they can offer students unique options: small groups and one-to-one attention from the teacher, carefully assembled classes — by age, interests, or professional focus, a connection to the local community (participation in city events and festivals, excursions, creative or business meetings), volunteering, and much more. In addition, a small independent center responds much faster to changes and quickly makes the relevant up-to-date decisions, whereas in large networks these processes are heavily bureaucratic.
International student migration is not disappearing, despite such loud and unwelcome news, but it does require even more careful calculation and thinking through backup or alternative options, ideally in consultation with an experienced professional from the education industry.
