India-Canada row: Students eye greener pastures as Canada dream turns sour

The recent diplomatic standoff between India and Canada is likely to further impact the students’ interest to pursue higher education in the North American country, which was already on wane for some time now.

Career counsellors say that students’ interest in Canada as an education destination has reduced drastically recently.

“We used to get 400-500 applications for Canada on a yearly basis until last year, but this has gone down to just 70 this year, that too only for the premium universities. The bulk of students who used to go to Canada -- in the mid-ranked colleges -- have stopped showing that interest,” said Adarsh Khandelwal, founder and chief executive officer, Collegify, a college admission service provider.

At the undergraduate level, parents are the ultimate decision maker and such tensions impact that decision, Khadelwal said, adding that rising living costs and the falling quality of opportunities in the country has also led to this downfall.

Jitin Chawla, career counsellor at Centre for Career Development in Delhi, agreed.

“The choices have vastly changed in the last few years and more students are looking at options like the Netherlands, Finland and Japan for the benefits and stability these countries offer. International travel, too, is also prone to geo-political issues and natural calamities. 

Hari Ganapathy, co-founder, Pickyourtrail, an online travel company, pointed out, “The recent incidents have surely set up a flurry of search queries given the unknown nature of the next steps and people want to keep their options ready. People plan holidays to have a hassle-free experience. We are seeing an uptick in demand for destinations like Australia and countries that allow them to see the northern lights.”

In September this year, the Canadian government had also announced a reduction in the intake cap for international study permits to be issued in 2025. It announced a 10 per cent reduction from the 2024 target of 485,000 new study permits issued to 437,000 in 2025.

India also has the highest number of students immigrating to Canada.

Data from the Ministry of External Affairs suggests that the absolute number of students going to the country has increased from 216,360 in 2021, to 318,380 in 2022 and 427,085 in 2023. 

Overall visa issuances are also coming down.

“Visas to Canada are getting delayed and the rejection rate has increased. For those who are traveling to meet friends and relatives, and already have visas, there would not be much impact, but new tourists now wanting visas would be impacted,” said Anil Kalsi, alternate board member, Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH) and vice president of Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI).

“The visa is difficult to procure as consulates are already working on low manpower and that would be further impacted by this diplomatic row. For us, in India, since it is the peak tourist season, it can lead to lower tourist inflow from Canada,” he added.