This paper critically examines two policy responses related to Canadian study permit processes that were adopted during two crises: the COVID-19 pandemic and the displacement of Ukrainian nationals due to war. We look at the expansion of the Student Direct Stream (SDS) to the Americas in 2021 and the creation of the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) in 2022 to discuss the effects of these crisis responses on the access to higher education (HE) in Canada for international students and forcibly displaced people. In this study, we conduct a policy analysis that draws on Bacchi's post-structural approach named 'What's the problem represented to be?' (WPR). We use the WPR approach to answer the question: how are students constituted as policy subjects in policy responses to crisis? Findings indicate that the two responses are accompanied by power imbalances that deepen barriers to equity in the access to HE in Canada.